A £512,000 currency hit to pre-tax profits shouldn't overly detract from another period of profitable trading at First Property (FPO), which increased its interim dividend by a tenth. More frustrating has been a lack of detail on a government decision to extend permitted development rights (PDR) beyond May 2016, which chief executive Ben Habib says can still be resisted by local authorities.
That stance is understandable, as the group's PDR fund has made a lot of money. Performance fees from the disposal of its last property were £0.9m, down from £1.9m a year ago. Fortunately, this was more than offset by the strong performance of six properties acquired in Poland and Romania in the second half of 2014.
Third-party assets under management fell due to the winding down of the USS fund. But a fifth of a new UK-focused £125m mandate had been deployed by September, and since the period-end this has risen nearer the 75 per cent threshold at which First Property is allowed to launch another mandate.
The group's market cap has also breached £50m, putting it on the radar of a greater number of institutional investors: Mr Habib says he is now meeting more prospective shareholders than ever before. Broker Arden Partners expects full-year pre-tax profit of £7.3m and EPS of 4.9p, down from £8.1m and 6.4p in the year to March 2015, but new mandates or property investments could trigger upgrades.
FIRST PROPERTY GROUP (FPO) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 47p | MARKET VALUE: | £54.0m | |
| TOUCH: | 47-47.5p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 49p | LOW: 29p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.9% | PE RATIO: | 7 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 27p | NET DEBT: | 299% | |
| Half-year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 7.8 | 5.4 | 4.24 | 0.350 |
| 2015 | 10.9 | 5.9 | 4.28 | 0.385 |
| % change | +41 | +9 | +1 | +10 |
Ex-div: 3 Dec Payment: 31 Dec | ||||
