LondonMetric reports rise in first-half profit

28th Nov 2013 07:59

- Half-year profit rises- Dividend maintained at 3.5p- EPS declines on portfolio repositioning Retail investment trust LondonMetric reported a jump in profit, a flat dividend, and a decline in net debt for the six months ended September 30th. For the half year, profit before exceptional items rose from £28.0m to £50.9m year-on-year (yoy), the dividend was maintained at 3.5p a share, while net debt declined from £527.2m to £322.8m yoy. Using the standard EPRA measure, earnings per share declined from 2.5p to 1.9p, largely due to the repositioning of the portfolio, while the EPRA net asset value per share increase 2.8% to 112p compared to March 2013. The EPRA, or European Public Real Estate Association, represents the biggest European property companies, and uses the EPRA measure to ensure all its companies' results are comparable. The group also revealed its occupancy levels had remained "robust" at up to 99% and said its unexpired lease length increased to 11.3 years, with just 3.4% of rental income due to expire in the next three years. LondonMetric was formed following the merger of London & Stamford Property and Metric Property Investments at the start of this year. Patrick Vaughan, Chairman of LondonMetric, said: "The LondonMetric team has worked diligently in their first half year together [and ...] have achieved excellent operational results, which puts a solid foundation in place for an exciting second half to the year."Since the merger we have released £205.7 of equity from our office, legacy distribution and residential portfolio which has been redeployed on acquisitions in our preferred sectors of out of town and retail distribution. We have secured 310bps higher yields on the equity used for our purchases than was contributed by the assets we sold. "This has given rise to an increase in our annual rent roll of 7.8% to £67.4m, whilst also materially improving the lease lengths. We still have significant resources available to deploy which will add to our rental income." The group also announced the sale of three retail parks in two separate transactions for a total of £31.6m. "We expect to continue our current pace of strategic acquisitions to further improve the portfolio and capitalise on our strong occupier and financial relationships," it added. NR