(Alliance News) - St Modwen Properties PLC on Tuesday said higher housebuilding volumes and growing momentum in industrial and logistics development resulted in a 3% year-on-year rise in net asset value for financial 2019.
The company, which is developing the New Covent Garden Market in London, said its NAV per share stood at 484.2 pence at November 30, up from 470.2p a year ago, despite an exceptional provision of 7.8p. EPRA NAV increased to 504.2p from 484.0p.
"The positive momentum has been visible in each of our three business units, with a 25% increase in volumes in St Modwen Homes; 85% growth in leasing and an over 60% step-up in development planned for 2020 in Industrial & Logistics; and GBP133 million of disposals and good development progress in Strategic Land & Regeneration," said Chair Danuta Gray.
For financial 2019, the company's pretax profit declined 25% year-on-year to GBP72.2 million from GBP95.8 million a year ago, mainly due to an exceptional provision of GPB22.5 million for a potential claim against the company for a legacy project.
Total revenue fell 1.4% to GBP429.9 million. Annual net rental and other income decreased to GBP40.1 million from GBP49.0 million due to a large amount of non-core disposals over the past two years.
St Modwen's outgoing Chief Executive Mark Allan said: "With a low see-through LTV of 19.6% and a significant pipeline of opportunities in our existing portfolio, we remain well-placed to deliver a meaningful improvement in return on capital and earnings over time. 2020 is therefore set to be another year of growth and delivery against our three strategic objectives.
"Moreover, we remain on track to broadly double our adjusted EPRA earnings per share from the 2018 level of 14.3p in the medium term and expect to make further progress on this level in 2020."
Allan is joining FTSE 100-listed Land Securities Group PLC in the same role from May 1. St Modwen has commenced a search process to appoint a replacement to Allan and has appointed Chief Financial Officer Rob Hudson as interim CEO until a new chief joins the business.
St Modwen has upped its total dividend for financial 2019 by 23% to 8.7p from 7.1p.
Shares in St Modwen were up 1.9% at 498.50p each in London on Tuesday morning. Land Securities shares were up 0.5% at 950.20p each.
By Tapan Panchal; tapanpanchal@alliancenews.com
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