Hansteen doubles annual pre-tax profit, lifts dividend
Strong UK sales saw real estate investment trust Hansteen Holdings double its pre-tax profit in 2014.
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The FTSE 250 group said annual pre-tax profit, boosted by gains on property sales, increased 100.9% to £131.2m, while its normalised income profit rose 22.3% to £48.2m.
Hansteen said it had made £315.3m sales last year, and it bought £267.7m worth of properties at an average yield of 9.8% and with a vacancy of 16.0%.
“We have sold a significant amount of property into a very buoyant UK investment market which has released capital and allowed Hansteen to make some noteworthy acquisitions,” said group chairman James Hambro.
“These acquisitions fit our business model perfectly having a high initial yield and a material vacant element."
The property valuation across the group’s portfolio rose 9.2% year-on-year to £135.8m, while like-for-like occupancy across the portfolio rose by 195,000 square metres, representing 29.2% of the vacancy it had at the start of the year.
"Risk adjusted returns from industrial property look high relative to many other investments and there is a significant weight of capital looking to invest," joint chief executives Ian Watson and Morgan Jones said.
The company said it will pay a full-year dividend of 5.0p, up from 4.16% from the previous year, and will also pay a special dividend of 3.0p.
Hansteen shares were down 1.57% to 114.77p at 08:26 on Monday.