RGL review from Oak Bloke - now bullish pt124 Jul 2025 13:34
I last looked at RGL in July 2024 in “RGL-me-this”. Looked twice actually. After all, I wrote an article basing my numbers on the data from both HL and Stocko but both were wrong. Their numbers were incorrect. I rewrote the article but it was the last time I took their data at face value. Oh how the detractors chortled at my error!
Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Pledge your support
I revised my article based on new evidence and came away with a *No*, on balance at 137.4p.
A year later it is 125p so I was spot on where RGL dropped to 101p post Lib day in April. But it is up about a quarter over the past 3 months.
So worth another look? Upwards from here?
House broker Shore Capital say sure it is. “It’s now in robust strategic shape and increasingly now in charge of its own destiny”.
Hmmm.
They explain: “An ongoing programme continues…. a further pipeline of 40 assets currently valued at £102.6m is either in sale progress, on the market or being prepared for sale and we remain optimistic the majority of it can be successfully realised.”
Hmmm.
Disposals (net of costs) were £28.6m in 2024 and £25m in 2023. Years in which RGL was desperate to raise cash. So how will they accelerate their disposals by 2X to realise the majority? Or are we just talking 50.0001% of that £102.6m? What majority are we speaking of?
The reason I worry about Shore being so sure is I have one eye on the Bank Debt and £99.8m in due in just 12 months. Can they roll that forward? Probably. They are well within their covenants now. They stiffed their shareholders to stay in them in 2024 with a £110.5m equity raise which doubled the number of shares. Luckily for OB readers who followed my article they’d sold out before then.
The 2023 accounts showed a -£80m reduction in property values and 2024 followed with further bad news and the portfolio dropped a further -£50m, although there’s a tiny bounce up in 1Q25 of +£1.9m to £607.8m (NB disposals in the period were £1.6m). The start of a recovery?
“Today” was what I wrote in last July’s article (so the estimated position back last year) and “Tomorrow” was how I modelled for the year end (of 2024). The DEC-24 columns shows the actual result. Debt lower, with drops in working capital too.
Similarly I expected a drop in rental income, but the £14.33m result in 1Q25 shocks me a bit. That’s quite a bit lower. We also see higher property costs in 2024 too. -£19.3m is -£4.8m per quarter. Net profit of £20.9m is -19.7% lower than 2023. Is that a “robust strategic shape” you can see there? Not Shore about that.
Although there is better news that in 2025 seven new lettings and eight renewals worth £1.6m a year were let at 6.32% above ERV (estimated rental value).
That’s only £0.1m above, big deal?
But what if we apply that to the expiry profile let’s see what that means for income.