23rd Feb 2016 07:51
LONDON (Alliance News) - Student accommodation developer Unite Group PLC on Tuesday said its pretax profit surged thanks to a big gain made on the valuation of its portfolio and hiked its dividend as it pointed to another robust year for the business.
The FTSE 250-listed company said its pretax profit for the year to the end of December rose to GBP388.4 million, a massive rise on the GBP108.4 million it made a year earlier after it made a big gain on the valuation of its properties and booked a big profit on its shares of its joint venture projects.
Rental income for the group edged up to GBP93.0 million from GBP89.4 million in the year and its property sales and other income increased to GBP115.8 million from GBP19.1 million, meaning total revenue nearly doubled to GBP208.8 million from GBP108.5 million.
At the close of the year, the group's operational portfolio increased to 46,000 beds, valued at a total of GBP3.8 billion, including joint ventures. Unite's share is valued at GBP1.8 billion.
Unite said it would hike its final dividend to 9.5 pence from 9.0p, pushing its total payout up to 15.0p from 11.2p, a 34% rise.
The group said it remains confident on the coming year as student numbers in the UK continued to grow, supported by government policy, and said it remains on track with its plans to convert to real estate investment trust status in early 2017.
"2015 was another year of strong performance for Unite Students. We have continued to deliver against our consistent, focused strategy and as a result remain well placed to benefit from strong market fundamentals in the UK student accommodation sector," said Mark Allan, Unite's chief executive.
"Looking forward, we continue to see opportunities to grow our business in a way which will enhance both financial returns and portfolio quality. The keys to this will be leveraging our valuable, market leading brand and scalable platform coupled with continued discipline in our investment and development activities," he added.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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