Stenprop profit rockets after year of transformation
Stenprop has posted a surge in annual profit on the back of a rising portfolio valuation during what its chief executive called a year of “continued transformation”.
The multi-let industrial specialist reported a pretax profit of £55.9m for the year to 31 March, up from £16.1m a year earlier. EPRA net tangible assets per share rose by 6.5% to 147p, as the portfolio value increased by 6.3% to £582.3m.
Stenprop has targeted a 100% MLI portfolio by next March. Chief executive Paul Arenson said the company is “firmly on track” to meet that goal, having risen from 58% to 74% over the course of the last financial year.
Stenprop has posted a surge in annual profit on the back of a rising portfolio valuation during what its chief executive called a year of “continued transformation”.
The multi-let industrial specialist reported a pretax profit of £55.9m for the year to 31 March, up from £16.1m a year earlier. EPRA net tangible assets per share rose by 6.5% to 147p, as the portfolio value increased by 6.3% to £582.3m.
Stenprop has targeted a 100% MLI portfolio by next March. Chief executive Paul Arenson said the company is “firmly on track” to meet that goal, having risen from 58% to 74% over the course of the last financial year.
Arenson added that the company expects to buy some £100m of MLI assets in the coming financial year.
During the past year the company made 14 acquisitions, including buying Bowthorpe Industrial Estate in Norwich from Blackrock for £19.6m; Mandale Business Park in Durham for £11.2m; and Newburn Riverside Industrial Park in Newcastle from Aegon for £10.9m.
Arenson said the “structural imbalance in supply and demand” for UK MLI has driven continued rental growth, and that his team expects that imbalance to continue for a number of years.
“It is still not economically feasible to build MLI units in most locations at current rental levels and yields,” he said, adding that “in and around many conurbations, supply is also being taken out of the market in favour of other uses, such as residential”.
Demand is growing while supply is constrained. “We are seeing increasing numbers of new types of businesses, enabled by the internet, needing MLI space,” the chief executive said. “These are businesses who have not previously occupied MLI space and are now realising the value of affordable, flexible space close to towns and cities.”
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