Palace Capital's (PCA) strategy of buying distressed assets at knock down prices is paying off nicely. And last year's small first-half loss has been transformed into a pre-tax profit of £8.4m.
Three acquisitions and a £7m uplift in the portfolio valuation helped to boost the value of investment properties from £2m a year earlier to just under £100m. And despite a recent £20m share placing, net asset value per share rose 5 per cent from the March year-end to 374p.
In October, the group completed its third acquisition, buying 17 properties from unlisted property company PIH. The portfolio was valued at £32m in July but by September this had risen to £33.5m. Other regional and secondary commercial property portfolios have been looked at, but Palace is sticking to its remit of buying properties that provide a sufficiently attractive return.
Arden Partners expect the full-year dividend to increase from 4.5p in 2014 to 12p a share for the full-year.
