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(Alliance News) - Urban Logistics REIT PLC said Friday its annual profit halved due to lower gains from the fair value of its investment properties, despite a rise in rental income due to a lift in the value of its property portfolio.
For the year to the end of March, the logistics-focused real estate investment trust reported a pretax profit of GBP9.4 million, down 50% from GBP18.7 million the year before.
This is due to a drop in gains from the fair value of investment properties to GBP5.7 million from GBP13.4 million. This was in spite of net rental income increasing by 21% year-to-year to GBP12.2 million from GBP10.1 million.
Net asset value per share as at March 31 dipped to 137.90p from 137.96p the prior year. However, Urban Logistics REIT's portfolio valuation increased by 11% to GBP207.0 million from GBP186.4 million.
Shares in Urban Logisitics REIT were up 0.5% at 130.60 pence on Friday in 2020.
During the period, the trust acquired nine logistics properties for GBP20.7 million, bringing the amount of assets within its portfolio to 39.
Urban Logistics declared a final dividend of 3.85 pence per share, bringing the total payout to 7.60p, up 8.6% from 7.00p the prior year.
Looking ahead, the trust said that considerable uncertainty concerning the UK economy's recovery speed remains. However, the investments made in March and April is expected to help grow the income of the business in the long term.
"Throughout a challenging period for UK businesses in recent months, the resilience of our investment strategy has proven itself. We remain focused on building our business through working closely with our tenants and all our properties are selected for their location, specification and strong tenant covenant characteristics. Our tenants continue to perform well, all paid their rents for the recent quarter through to June, and our strong balance sheet gives us the ability to move quickly as good investment opportunities arise," said Chief Executive Richard Moffitt.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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