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(Alliance News) - LondonMetric Property PLC on Wednesday edged up its annual dividend despite swinging to a loss on impairment costs and a loss on the value of its investment properties.
Also on Wednesday, the London-based property firm announced that it has exchanged contracts on 213,00 square feet of its distribution lettings.
At the Stoke development, Pets at Home Group PLC took on a new lease on a 141,000 square feet distribution unit, completing the letting of the 278,000 square feet development at a rent of GBP6.00 per square foot.
Meanwhile, in Birmingham, Network Rail took a new lease on 38,000 square feet of distribution warehousing at a rent of GBP7.50 per square foot.
Finally, in Greenford West, London, online pharmacy Metabolic Healthcare took on a new lease on a 34,000 square feet warehouse at a rant of GBP12.80 per foot.
LondonMetric has also regeared a lease on a 50,000 square feet warehouse in Fareham, where it has extended the term certain by ten years. The rent has also been increased by 22% to GBP7.95 per square foot.
In total, these transactions have a weighted average unexpired lease term of 8.2 years, and generate an uplift in rent of GBP1.4 million per annum.
For the year to the end of March, LondonMetric reported a pretax loss of GBP6.9 million, swinging heavily from a profit of GBP119.5 million the year before.
This was due to a loss on the revaluation of investment properties to GBP6.7 million from a gain of GBP75.9 million. There was also an impairment of GBP48.3 million, of goodwill relating to the AJ Mucklow acquisition.
However, net rental income increased by 24% to GBP115.9 million from GBP93.8 million the prior year. As at March 31, net asset value per share dropped by 1.8% to 171.7 pence from 174.9p the same date the prior year.
Meanwhile, LondonMetric's property portfolio value at the end of March rose by 27% to GBP2.35 billion from GBP1.85 billion the prior year, bolstered by assets gained from the AJ Mucklow acquisition.
LondonMetric declared a dividend of 8.3p per share, up from 8.2p the prior year.
"Whilst the timing and suddenness of the pandemic were unforeseeable, many trends that we are seeing play out were already in the system and are being accelerated as temporary behaviours become more permanent. We are seeing events that were expected to take years to emerge now happening in months or even weeks. As a result, real estate performances continue to polarise, with many distressed sectors being severely damaged whilst the winning sectors are likely to see a wider margin of victory," said Chief Executive Andrew Jones.
"Our focus on owning the right assets in the winning sectors is delivering continued outperformance. Reliable, repetitive and growing income returns are the bedrock of future returns and underpin our progressive dividend. Our portfolio was materially enhanced by our activity in the year, particularly through the Mucklow acquisition which significantly grew our urban logistics platform," Jones added.
Shares in LondonMetric Property were up 1.1% at 215.40 pence on Wednesday in London.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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