Valuation gains send Safestore profit soaring

Safestore has boosted pretax half-year profit by 70% as it builds up its European business. Revenue at the FTSE 250 self-storage company rose by 14.6% to £101m for the six months to the end of April. Profit before income tax rose to £285.2m, up from £167.3m for the same period in 2021, driven by a gain on investment properties of £223.9m. That is almost double the £127.7m gain for H1 2021. The firm, which has more than 6m sq ft of space across the UK, France and Spain, as well as a growing presence in the Netherlands and Belgium, has a development and extension pipeline of 23 stores and just under 1m sq ft. Earlier this year Safestore completed the purchase of Carlyle’s 80% stake in its Benelux business for €146m (£125m). Chief executive Frederic Vecchioli said: “Over the last three years we have learnt much about the Netherlands and Belgian markets and feel confident about the ongoing development of our presence in these geographies. It is our intention to gradually increase our footprint in these two markets.” He added: “While performance in the first half of the year has been very strong, we are conscious of the inflationary and cost of living pressures ahead. We have assessed our cost base and construction projects in the light of these factors and feel confident that we have the yield management capability and cost discipline to mitigate the likely cost inflation and are comfortable that our current pipeline projects will continue to deliver returns ahead of our internal hurdle rates.” To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews Photo © Safestore