The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
London South East prides itself on its community spirit, and in order to keep the chat section problem free, we ask all members to follow these simple rules. In these rules, we refer to ourselves as "we", "us", "our". The user of the website is referred to as "you" and "your".
By posting on our share chat boards you are agreeing to the following:
The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. As a user you agree to any information you have entered being stored in a database. You agree that we have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic or board at any time should we see fit. You agree that we have the right to remove any post without notice. You agree that we have the right to suspend your account without notice.
Please note some users may not behave properly and may post content that is misleading, untrue or offensive.
It is not possible for us to fully monitor all content all of the time but where we have actually received notice of any content that is potentially misleading, untrue, offensive, unlawful, infringes third party rights or is potentially in breach of these terms and conditions, then we will review such content, decide whether to remove it from this website and act accordingly.
Premium Members are members that have a premium subscription with London South East. You can subscribe here.
London South East does not endorse such members, and posts should not be construed as advice and represent the opinions of the authors, not those of London South East Ltd, or its affiliates.
@ Yuri - yes, you are looking at a platform that distorts / aggregates things in an incorrect way.
Page 10 of the half year press release gives a truer picture.
https://www.hammerson.com/sites/hammerson-corp/files/hammerson-corp/Half%20year%2021/v2Press%20Release%2030.6.21%20FINAL.pdf
Yuri - financial costs are the figure I think you should be referring to which is £56.6m for the 6 month period ending 30 June 2021. This is also £17.3m higher because of loan cancellation costs over the period. Because we reduced debt over that time. I am sure there are reasons people do not want to invest in this company but making out interest payments are higher than the rental income is not true.
Thanks.
Yuri, I appreciate very much your opinion... your posts are welcome... Yes, as you say in the market there are many things out of control... But my belief is a capable ceo / directors team - can help to stop a crisis becoming a tragedy... and even turn it into a success... will see and what will be will be
The current CEO seems to be making smart moves - i'm not sure if you've watched a webcast to the half year but she is quite impressive. Selling off some assets so they are not close to breaching covenants. Selling out of areas which they do not have control or a major interest. Refinancing to extend maturities. Pushing to let all vacant spaces - which reduces business rate costs. And now looking at staff headcount and cutting costs there.
When management are making sense in what they do then it usually leads to a good outcome. The today announced business rate relief in the UK will help collections too.
I do see the issue with opex and cashflow is always key. With a lot going on in the first half of the year in refinancing, sales of assets, lockdowns, and already committed capex, I don't think the cashflow for that period if necessarily representative of normal. However the second half of the year cashflow is something i'll be looking closely at.
Debeast - I might be looking at wrong financial reports on a platform which aggregates things in a wrong/distorted way.
Happy? :)
https://uk.investing.com/equities/hammerson-income-statement
email - it's your choice and your money, I'm just sharing opinion, nothing against them as they might be really working hard to do whatever is possible (although I've witnessed so many directors ruining companies too)
But unfortunately these days so many things are out of their controls and market situation is harsh, weight of this factor is well above directors ability to deliver.
Love how Yuri keeps making the claim of hammersons interest payments being higher than rent collections. This is wrong and if you read the financial statements you will see this. Opinions is one thing but lies is another.
Ex Div as of 4.30p.m. tonight unless I am mistaken.
6 monthly scrip div equates to about 5.5%.
Not bad at all.
I mean they will deliver
Well, without going to eviscerate posts, it all comes down to whether you trust the current ceo and board doing a good job or not. I have found no reasons, including your arguments, no to trust them to deliver
Whatever your seemingly twisted interpretation is - is up to you,
what I'm saying is hardcoded in my actual posts without taking it out of context,
there's no need to turn it upside down
(unless you're suggestively trying to project some biased agenda here, but again - it's on you).
Yuri, can you name please some REITS which have done what you expect HMSO should have done to be in a better - investible - position?... You seem to be telling us that the Directors's plans will end up in disaster and therefore they do not know what they are doing....
Nb92 - Re: "...until the rent normalises and cash starts getting returned to investors again...."
Ok, if you take a look at their collections net OPEX - how does it look with all those trends?
How long it might take to recover to a state you're mentioning?
IMO - it's one of top red-lines in ownership manual/checklist when IR or BoD trying to take shareholders attention away from crucial core of investing purposes and start sweetening info to look it better.
There's a misleading/big problem with taking planned collections as performance benchmark (even worse - in relative terms) and absolutely ignoring nominal values of revenues minus costs. Interest payments alone are exceeding collections by a significant magnitude - therefore continuing rapidly draining equity.
So it's rather a question when (or even if) they can reach (and cross) break even state or does business show a reliable signs of sustainable survivability over a longer-term, hoping for some miracle to happen here would be very naive and dangerous to capital. To me for now it just looks like they will keep draining equity for at least another couple of years.
Received a pretty comprehensive response back from Hammersons investor relations. Their rent collections are not far behind Klepierre for the third quarter - i'd been mistakenly comparing to the fourth. Was also informed the EU commission recently waived through the French government’s relief programme for retailers, hopefully there should be a further uptick in collections.
They are limited on what they can disclose as to Value Retail. The refinancing is not considered a risk by Value Retail's own auditors and the downside scenarios that led to the risk in HMSO's report (A further 3 month lockdown) has not happened nor does it seem like that will happen, at least not to that extent. They are however not expecting full earnings recovery until international travel returns.
Seems like we got to just wait this one out until the rent normalises and cash starts getting returned to investors again.
The case surge is only somewhat concerning. Seems the death rates are being suppressed by the vaccines and governments seem quite determined to keep things open - albeit we've heard that before.
In terms of asset valuations, it seems we are now bottoming out. The building focus across the country seems to have moved away from retail towards residential and the more resi that is built around Hammersons sites the higher the footfall.
And when it comes to inflation and the money printing that governments are doing. 'real' assets such as property and commodities hold their value reasonable well. It seems to me a bit of inflation would benefit Hammerson - a 10% inflation uplift in values, but debt stays where it is is a real positive for net assets. Would be even better if they manage to refinance more at long term fixed rates.
So it does not concern anyone what with fresh surge in covid (which already getting close to hit 2 year duration) cases around the Europe and new waves of lockdowns will clearly have negative impact on space occupancy, rent rates and will lead to further worsening of situation around impairments/delinquencies (many businesses were in zombie state for a prolonged periods of time and government-announced business protection and support measures keeping it all afloat are rapidly expiring).
HMSO's financials are exhibiting toxicity with these trends as it affects revenues (rent collections) and asset valuations (as NPV function of cashflow and rising commercial interest rates) in a very negative way, there's very little BoD can do about optimizing costs.
But people seem to be very happy about printing more worthless paper backed by deteriorating state of equity.
The update overall was decent. However I'm rather concerned that the France rent collection was so low for the third quarter. I may be wrong, but France don't have the same rent protections that the UK put in until March 2022? So i'd expect them to be higher.
Kleppiere released their update for the quarter yesterday and have managed 88.9% rent collection for the 3rd quarter. That's a stark difference.
It would be good if we could also get more information on Value Retail. Considering it's pretty much half owned by Hammerson and accounts for something like a third the share value, it's very opaque. I visited Bicester myself yesterday, had to drive around the (quite large) parking area twice to find a parking space. So it's busy, which is a good thing. It is about time cash went towards Hammerson and shareholders, not just focusing on growth (like they said last year but seem to have backtracked on)
I will be putting these question to Hammerson via email and hopefully getting answers at the AGM in 4 weeks as advised on the circular.
how much is the dividend they are paying
Yes a great update and delivered into a poor market.
I was in Meadowhall Shopping Centre In Sheffield last weekend and the place was absolutely packed. Not an HMSO property but imho reflective of the general return in momentum of shoppers. It took me aback how busy it was hence the mention.
Great divi to be paid as well...XDD 28 Oct. Roll up, roll up!
Yup, it seems we are in the right direction. I wish I had kept my extra cash to take this opportunity to add
Shame it’s gone down today, maybe a good shout to buy more!
Hammerson reported a "significant" improvement in rent collection for the fourth quarter on Wednesday.
The property group noted that since its last update on 5 August, occupiers have been able to operate in all territories with minimal Covid restrictions.