Sirius readies levers to unlock growth
Strong occupier demand has helped business and industrial park owner Sirius Real Estate grow its like-for-like rent roll by 7.2% to €188.7m (£160.8m) in the year ended 31 March.
Pretax profit across the group, which has a portfolio across Germany and the UK, increased by 32.4% to €115.2m during the year under review, primarily as a result of a €12.4m valuation gain in 2024, compared with a €9.8m deficit in the previous financial year.
The group said its German operations had performed slightly better than the UK, but both markets had shown successful performance.
Strong occupier demand has helped business and industrial park owner Sirius Real Estate grow its like-for-like rent roll by 7.2% to €188.7m (£160.8m) in the year ended 31 March.
Pretax profit across the group, which has a portfolio across Germany and the UK, increased by 32.4% to €115.2m during the year under review, primarily as a result of a €12.4m valuation gain in 2024, compared with a €9.8m deficit in the previous financial year.
The group said its German operations had performed slightly better than the UK, but both markets had shown successful performance.
The German portfolio recorded a like-for-like increase in its annualised rent roll of 7.1% to €128m, while the total annualised rent roll increased by 5.4% to €129.7m. Of this growth, €8.5m related to organic growth, €3.6m was lost from disposals and €1.7m represented the impact from acquisitions.
The UK recorded a like-for-like increase in its annualised rent roll of 7.7% to £51. The total annualised rent roll increase in the year was £7.1m, with £4m organic growth offset by £300,000 of asset disposals and net move-outs of the same value. Acquisitions accounted for £3.7m of rent roll uplift in the period.
Sirius said the UK operating platform had generated a healthy number of enquiries for the year – 17,108, up from 15,511 in 2023. Some 1,165 deals were signed during the period for 586,773 sq ft of space.
“These developments have made a positive impact on rental growth and contributed to the company’s occupancy growth in the year,” said Sirius.
Chief executive Andrew Coombs said: “We have rapidly executed on our pipeline of attractive asset acquisitions in both Germany and the UK, taking advantage of market conditions with €160m of assets bought in the past six months. At the same time, we have maintained a healthy net LTV ratio and have recycled capital with €60m of disposals completed at a premium to book value, highlighting the business’s ability to crystallise returns from our mature assets and to drive value where we see strategic market opportunities.”
He added: “Looking ahead, our outlook remains positive: our active asset recycling programme, strong cash position and post balance sheet issuance of €59.9m of debt means our balance sheet is in rude health.
“There remain many levers we can pull to unlock value and grow occupancy and rental income within our current portfolio through our successful asset management programme, and we remain well positioned to fuel our accretive pipeline, supporting our next phase of growth and deliver attractive returns for shareholders.”
