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LONDON (Alliance News) - First Property Group PLC on Thursday said its profit decreased in the first half of its current financial year on lease expiry for two properties in Poland.
The property fund manager said pretax profit for the six months to the end of September declined to GBP3.8 million from GBP5.0 million reported for the same period the year prior.
Revenue in the first half was down 7.7% to GBP11.2 million from GBP12.1 million reported a year ago.
"The reduction in profit before tax should only be temporary and is due virtually entirely to the expiry of Citi Group's lease at one of our two towers in Warsaw," explained Chief Executive Ben Habib.
"We expect this vacant space to be leased in the near future," Habib added.
As at September 30, the company had assets under management of GBP730 million, up from GBP554 million year-on-year, with the third party assets under management of GBP551 million, up from GBP382 million.
Net asset value per share improved to 39.39p during the period from 35.68p a year earlier.
First Property shares were trading 4.8% higher on Thursday at 52.90p each.
During the period, First Property said it established two new funds, Fprop Phoenix Ltd and Fprop Cluj Ltd, in Poland and Romania, respectively.
As a result, revenue, earned from fund management, increased by 4% to GBP1.6 million from GBP1.5 million reported in the first half of 2017.
First Property upped its interim payout to 0.44 pence a share from 0.42p paid the year before.
"We look forward to delivering continued growth and increasing levels of profitability for our clients and shareholders," said Habib.
