Roy Cokayne
STENPROP yesterday reported a substantial profit after having annouced a loss in the previous reporting period.
Profit after tax attributable to shareholders for the year ended March was e37.6 million (R525.3m) compared with a loss of e37 425 in the prior period, which extended from October 26, 2012 to March 31, 2014.
Stenprop declared a final dividend of 4.2c a share for the six months to March, to give an annualised return of 6.12 percent on the issue price of e1.37.
The company is a listed fund focused on property investment in the UK, Germany and Switzerland.
The latest results follow a number of value-enhancing acquisitions – like the Stenham transaction, which included interests in 45 properties in Germany, Switzerland and the UK valued at e683.5m through the issue of Stenprop shares worth e318.8m at e1.37 a share.
Moving to main board
Stenprop’s European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA) net asset value (NAV) of e1.65 a share represents an increase of 20.44 percent on the e1.37 issue price of the shares.
The company has a primary listing on the Bermuda Stock Exchange and a secondary listing on the JSE’s AltX. It intends, however, to migrate to the main board of the JSE in the third quarter of its current financial year.
Chief executive Paul Arenson said Stenprop had delivered good growth to date, underpinned by the fund’s diversified, high-quality, defensive portfolio. “The Stenham portfolio was transformational. It gave us the platform from which to continue driving value creation by executing several strategic transactions.”
At end-March, Stenprop’s predominantly office and retail sector portfolio was independently valued at e807m, 42 percent in the UK, 38 percent in Germany and 20 percent in Switzerland. It generated annualised gross rent of e52.4m.
After a successful capital raise of e35m in South Africa in March, Stenprop in May acquired a 50 percent interest in 25 Argyll Street, a £75m (R1 billion) multilet office building in the heart of London’s West End. It also notarised the acquisition of Hermann-Quartier, a retail shopping centre located in the high street of Neukölln in Berlin for e22.7m.
Chief financial officer Patsy Watson said Stenprop had started the year with a healthy cash position and would focus on nurturing its portfolio to deliver sustainable and growing earnings, distributions and capital growth, and bolster this with strategic acquisitions.
Watson said they expected to deliver adjusted EPRA earnings a share of more than 10.30c, and to make two distributions of 8.5c a share for the year to March 2016. Stenprop shares rose 2.54 percent to R20.20 yesterday.