LONDON (Alliance News) - St Modwen Properties PLC on Tuesday said external market factors and significant valuation gains booked the prior year meant profit for its recent full year came in at less than a third of that reported the year earlier.
The FTSE 250-listed group, which focuses on regenerating brownfield sites and building residential developments, posted pretax profit of GBP60.8 million for the financial year that ended November 30, down from GBP258.4 million a year earlier. Earnings per share declined to 24.10 pence to 97.90p.
St Modwen said that during the year there was a "noticeably weaker investment market", delivering GBP12.6 million of market valuation gains against the GBP35.7 million posted the prior year. This together this the impact of UK stamp duty changes in April, and the fact it did not see a repeat of the large valuation gains booked for its New Covent Garden Market site, meant levels of performance were down on the prior year.
Despite this, St Modwen said the underlying business performed well, and trading profit for the year declined only to GBP56.1 million from GBP63.6 million. Revenue was largely flat around GBP287.7 million from GBP287.5 million a year earlier.
Net asset value per share increased to 431.00p from 413.50p over the course of the year, and St Modwen increased its total dividend for the year to 6.00p per share from 5.75p per share the year earlier.
St Modwen said the past twelve months have been "unsettled", and noted the outlook for both 2017 and 2018 looked to be "similarly uncertain, as a range of macro-economic factors play out both globally and more locally to the UK".
However, St Modwen said the business was "fundamentally strong", and it will be undertaking a business review in 2017 to focus on "how we can build on our existing strengths and focus our activities in the optimum manner".
By Hannah Boland; hannahboland@alliancenews.com; @Hannaheboland
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