(Alliance News) - Town Centre Securities PLC on Wednesday said it turned to an annual loss due to a loss on investments, but it set out an optimistic outlook.
The Leeds, England-based property investor, car park and hotel operator said pretax loss in the financial year to June 30 was GBP29.5 million, swung from a profit of GBP11.0 million a year prior.
Town Centre's net asset value per share as at June 30 declined 15% to 291 pence from 341p a year before.
Revenue climbed 7.9% to GBP30.4 million from GBP28.1 million.
However, the company incurred a GBP21.0 million cost on investment properties, compared to a gain of GBP3.5 million a year prior. Further, its impairment of car parking assets widened sharply to GBP10.5 million from GBP384,000. Property expenses increased 16% to GBP11.6 million from GBP10.0 million. Finally, its share of post-tax loss from joint ventures was GBP4.1 million, compared to a profit of GBP1.3 million.
Chair and Chief Executive Edward Ziff said: "Rising costs, interest rate increases and the ongoing geopolitical conflicts are affecting all stakeholders and we remain committed to supporting them, in particular our dedicated employees. We continue to focus on maintaining good landlord-tenant relationships, with open dialogue and collaboration the cornerstones of our approach."
Despite the swing to a loss, Town Centre maintained its final dividend at 2.5p and its annual total dividend at 5.0p per share.
Looking ahead, Town Centre noted "resilient trading" in the second half of the 2023 calendar year, with a continuing car parks recovery momentum. It is targeting selective acquisitions and aims to progress its development pipeline.
The company said: "We are looking to develop our own parking management system and hardware to bring operational cost efficiencies and customer journey improvements. We are also continuing to explore alternative uses for our larger, longer-term assets to make better use of our branches and deliver more revenue. Our approach to diversification also includes evaluating management agreements for new sites as well as acquiring further assets of our own."
Chair and CEO Ziff said: "We remain committed to continuing to reset and reinvigorate TCS by delivering on our accelerated four pillar strategy of: actively managing our assets, maximising available capital, investing in our development pipeline and acquiring and improving investment assets to diversify our portfolio."
Town Centre shares were 2.5% lower at 111.20 pence each on Wednesday afternoon in London.
By Tom Budszus, Alliance News reporter
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