LONDON (Alliance News) - Property developer J Smart & Co Contractors on Thursday said its pretax profit increased in the first half of its financial year on higher revenue, though it said residential sales fell year-on-year.
J Smart said its pretax profit rose to GBP559,000 in the six months to the end of January, up from GBP441,000 a year earlier. Revenue rose to GBP9 million from GBP8.5 million, despite residential sales falling in the half due to a lull between development starts. The company said, however, that forward sales from its City Park Development in Edinburgh were "promising".
The company will pay a flat interim dividend of 0.92 pence per share, it said.
J Smart said its order pipeline looks positive for the second half, though it said margins continue to prove a challenge. Private residential sales are holding up well, but sales numbers for the year will be lower than in 2013, the company said.
Occupancy levels and letting prospects for its industrial properties are "healthy", but the company said void levels in its office properties remain unacceptably high, despite an improvement in letting prospects.
The company expects underlying profit for the year to be at least in line with the year before, though it said too many uncertainties remain in play to accurately predict headline profit for the year to the end of July.
J Smart shares were up 0.6% to 91.50 pence on Thursday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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Smart (J) & Co (SMJ)