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(Alliance News) - Schroder European Real Estate Investment Trust PLC on Monday reported flat net assets on a "stable" portfolio.
At September 30, the London and Johannesburg-listed property investor's NAV per share stood at 136.20 euro cents, unchanged on the year before.
Schroder European's net assets ended the period at EUR182.1 million, also flat on the year before.
The company's portfolio ended September 30 valued at EUR242.7 million, with its top ten holdings valued at EUR223.2 million.
Net rental income slipped 2.5% to EUR15.4 million from EUR15.8 million. As a result, annual pretax profit fell 36% to EUR11.0 million from EUR17.1 million.
The company recorded a EUR3.5 million unrealised gain from its real estate portfolio during the year but recorded EUR1.0 million investment transaction costs and EUR2.5 million in capital expenditure.
Chair Julian Berney said: "2019 has been an important year in positioning SEREIT to deliver long-term income and capital growth. Our increasingly diversified portfolio by sector, geography and tenant has underpinned a period of stable financial and operational performance, supporting the delivery of the attractive and well covered dividend, whilst also improving the company's defensive characteristics. At the same time, initiatives such as the Paris Boulogne-Billancourt refurbishment and lease re-gear demonstrate the potential to generate strong shareholder returns from our strategy of focusing on Winning European Cities, where all 13 of the group's assets are situated."
Schroder European declared a fourth interim dividend for the year of 1.85 cents per share. Giving the company a total annual dividend of 7.4 cents, meeting its target dividend yield of 5.5% and 5.0% higher than last year's total payout of 7.05 cents.
Fund Manager Jeff O'Dwyer added: "Property markets in our target cities are performing well. Whilst there are pockets of weakness, such as in the retail shopping centre sector, our limited exposure to underperforming parts of the market and balanced portfolio helps mitigate us against these.
"Alongside progressing the Paris redevelopment and other initiatives to further improve our income profile, the ambition for 2020 is that we will grow the portfolio via new acquisitions in our target Winning Cities, benefiting from both the macro trends supporting attractive real estate returns, as well as the company's extensive local market expertise."
Shares in Schroder European were untraded in both London and Johannesburg on Monday, last closing at 112.50p in London and ZAR22.50 in Johannesburg.
By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
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