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(Alliance News) - Sirius Real Estate Ltd on Monday said its profit in its most recently ended financial year suffered from unfavourable revaluation of its investment properties, while revenue increased on higher rental rates.
In addition, the company said it appointed Caroline Britton and Kelly Cleveland as independent non-executive directors with effect from the start of June.
Britton is a chartered accountant and was an audit partner at Deloitte LLP from April 2000 to May 2018, having qualified with its predecessor firm Touche Ross & Co.
Cleveland is also a chartered accountant, having qualified in New Zealand in 2001 at PricewaterhouseCoopers and has worked in real estate in the UK since 2004.
Sirius Real Estate also said Jill May and Justin Atkinson will be stepping down at the close of the company's annual general meeting on July 31, enabling them to focus on their various other roles and further opportunities with other organisations.
Finally, Sirius Real Estate named Anthony Gallagher as company secretary, with effect from Friday last week.
The business parks operator reported pretax profit of EUR110.8 million for the year to March 31 compared with EUR144.7 million profit a year earlier, as gains on revaluation of investment properties slipped to EUR55.8 million from EUR99.9 million. Revenue, meanwhile, rose to EUR150.0 million from EUR140.1 million.
Sirius Real Estate said like-for-like annualised rent roll increased 6.1% to EUR81.2 million, with like-for-like average rental rates rose 4.1% to EUR6.07 per square metre.
Net asset value per share increased by 8.9% to 77.35 cents year-on-year, with EPRA NAV per share of 80.62 cents as at March 31 versus 74.82 cents.
Sirius Real Estate declared a dividend per share of 1.80 cents, giving total dividend for year of 3.57 cents, up from 3.36 cents paid a year ago.
Looking ahead, the company said its like-for-like book value increased by 9.9% to EUR1.07 billion.
In light of the on-going uncertainty with regards to the impact of Covid-19 in the current financial year, the company said it does not consider it prudent to provide full year financial guidance but will continue to monitor the situation and update the market in due course.
"While we look to the future with caution, due to the uncertainties created by Covid-19, I believe the company is well placed to endure the economic difficulties being created by the crisis and also take advantage of opportunities with our strong balance sheet," said Chief Executive Andrew Coombs.
"With our significant cash resources available to make acquisitions, further vacancy to develop and reversion potential to capture, Sirius is well positioned to meet the challenges ahead," added Coombs.
Sirius Real Estate shares were trading 1.2% lower in London on Monday at 78.45 pence each, while in Johannesburg, the stock was up 1.4% at ZAR16.83 a share.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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