LONDON (Alliance News) - Private rented sector and regeneration property firm Sigma Capital Group PLC said Tuesday its 2015 pretax profit was ten times higher than that seen in 2014, ahead of original market expectations
Sigma Capital posted GBP2.1 million pretax profit for the year ended December 31, up from GBP210,000 in 2014, on the back of a 74% increase in revenue to GBP6.7 million from GBP3.9 million.
Sigma said profit from operations came in almost nine times higher for 2015, at GBP1.8 million from GBP186,000, which was then boosted further by finance income of GBP319,000 from GBP28,000.
Sigma noted it made progress in the first phase of private rented sector homes to be delivered alongside its partner Gatehouse Bank PLC, with a total development cost of the properties of GBP100.0 million. It said this first phase of delivering a total of 918 new family rental homes is underway, with 549 fully complete and let. Sigma said it was on track to deliver the rest of the homes in 2016, with approximately 50 houses per month completing.
Annualised rent income from these properties is forecast to be more than GBP7.0 million by the end of the third quarter.
Sigma said it has also commenced the second phase of its delivery of private rented sector homes, alongside UK PRS Properties, supported by the Kuwait Investment Authority, and said it will deliver a further 813 rental properties across nine sites. Construction has started on two of those sites with a further two to commence shortly, Sigma said.
The company also pointed to its launch of a self-funded private rented sector portfolio in December 2015, which is looking to create 550 new homes across Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Sheffield. This is expected to have a gross development value of more than GBP60.0 million by the end of 2017.
Sigma added it expects to have a run-rate of 3,000 private rented sector units by the end of 2016 across sites in process.
The company said it was "well placed to deliver large scale, professionally managed PRS housing stock and expect the business to make further encouraging progress over 2016".
"Macro drivers of undersupply of new homes and historic poor management of rental stock mean that our PRS platform is gaining significant traction. With our PRS venture with Gatehouse performing ahead of expectations on the first phase, our launch of a second phase, with UK PRS Properties, and our own PRS portfolio underway, we are confident of further progress during 2016," Chairman David Sigsworth said.
Shares in Sigma were up 3.1% at 99.00 pence on Tuesday.
By Hannah Boland; hannahboland@alliancenews.com; @Hannaheboland
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