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(Alliance News) - NewRiver REIT PLC on Thursday kept its interim dividend in line with the year before as it swung to a loss amid a fall in the value of its property portfolio.
The real estate investment trust - which is focused on retail and leisure properties - said for the six months to the end of September it made a pretax loss of GBP20.9 million, compared to a profit of GBP3.2 million the year before.
This was mainly due to a widened loss on the revaluation of its investment properties at GBP40.4 million from GBP24.7 million. However, revenue increased by 4.2% to GBP70.0 million from GBP67.1 million, as net property income rose by 6.5% to GBP45.7 million from GBP42.9 million the prior year.
As at September 30, NewRiver REIT's net asset value was 244 pence per share, down 14% from 283p the same date the year before, and down 6.5% from 261p at the end of March.
The trust's portfolio value at the end of September stood at GBP1.26 billion, down 8.0% from GBP1.37 billion the same date the prior year, and 3.1% from GBP1.30 billion at the end of March.
Despite the value decline, the portfolio still outperformed the MSCI-IPD benchmark, delivering a positive total return of 0.3%, compared to the MSCI-IPD's negative return of 2.8%.
NewRiver REIT declared an interim dividend of 10.8 pence per share, in-line with the year before.
"We are pleased to report another period of solid performance, as we entered our tenth year of operations. Our diversified and differentiated portfolio continued to outperform the market, delivering sustainable cash flows, robust operational metrics and resilient valuations," said Chief Executive Allan Lockhart.
Shares in NewRiver REIT - which is headquartered in London - were down 2.7% at 184.60 pence on Thursday.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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