TR Property Net Asset Value Total Return Outperforms Benchmark

LONDON (Alliance News) - TR Property Investment Trust PLC on Wednesday said its net asset value total return was ahead of its benchmark, with the second half of the year a "game of two halves" in the same way as the first was.

TR Property posted a net asset value total return of 8.2% for the year ended March 31, ahead of the benchmark total return of 5.4%. The benchmark is the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Europe Capped Net Total Return Index in Sterling.

TR Property said its revenue came in at GBP309.4 million, which equated to 29.8% of the average net assets over the period. TR Property said this was slightly ahead of last year's equivalent figure of 27.4% and " reflects the volatility of the market and the rotation of the portfolio particularly in the second half". Revenue earnings per share 8.36 pence, TR Property said, down from the 8.89p posted a year earlier.

However, the company said its full year dividend was 8.35 pence per share, up 8.4% from the 7.70p offered a year earlier.

"I commented in the interim report that the first half had been 'a game of two halves' with the market weakening in the first quarter only to recover in the second quarter. This pattern was broadly repeated in the second half with the low point of June almost matching the low of February," said Chairman Caroline Burton.

"The last twelve months have been dominated by concerns surrounding global growth and the impact of multi-decade lows in the price of oil. With renewed fears of deflationary pressures the focus has, once again, been on the behaviour of central banks. The recovery in markets over the last couple of months has been strongly assisted by the dovish behaviour of the Federal Reserve and, more locally for our investments, the promises made by the European Central Bank," Burton added.

"Mario Draghi announced, amongst other initiatives, a widening of the unorthodox monetary easing programmes to include the purchase of a broader range of financial assets. The cost of debt fell further for the companies we were invested in. With bonds, both sovereign and corporate, offering anaemic returns, well financed property companies, many yielding over 4% and offering the prospect of further cash flow growth, are attractive," the chairman said.

"Whilst much of the benefit of debt refinancing has now been extracted by companies such that lowering costs of debt further are not likely to add much to earnings for the next year, we still expect to see modest growth in underlying earnings (and therefore dividends) driven by rental growth and accretive acquisitions," Burton said.

Shares in TR Property were flat at 299.70p on Wednesday morning.

By Hannah Boland; hannahboland@alliancenews.com; @Hannaheboland

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TR Property Investment Trust