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LONDON (Alliance News) - Irish commercial real estate investor Sirius Real Estate PLC said Friday its pretax profit rose in the financial year to the end of March, as demand for its properties remained strong and its rent roll increased.
The group's pretax profit, including acquisitions, rose to EUR12.6 million from EUR9.4 million a year earlier, with like-for-like pretax profit growth, which strips out the contribution from acquisitions completed before the year-end, at 26%.
Sirius said demand for its workspace continued to be robust in the year, with its gross annualised rent roll from its pre-acquisitions portfolio up to EUR43.6 million from EUR41.3 million a year earlier. Including acquisitions, the rent roll has increased to EUR50 million, the company said.
The average rental rate for the group, including acquisitions, rose to EUR4.75 per square metre, with occupancy at 79%. On a like-for-like basis, stripping out the acquisitions, the average rental rate was EUR4.58 per square metre, up from EUR4.46, with occupancy at 78%.
The company secured 119,992 square metres of new lettings in the year and the valuation of its pre-acquisitions portfolio increased 6.4% to EUR445.5 million. Including acquisitions, the portfolio was valued at EUR550 million at year end.
Sirius said it will pay a final dividend of 0.84 euro cents per share, in addition a 0.77 cents interim payment, making its total dividend EUR1.61.
"This was a good year for Sirius, which saw us deliver on our ambition to increase the scale and future returns generated from the business. The focus now is on maintaining this positive momentum," said Sirius Chairman Robert Sinclair.
Shares in Sirius were up 0.9% to EUR0.4944 on Friday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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