Shaftesbury (SHB) owns 589 shops, restaurants, cafes and pubs, in addition to offices and apartments rented within three prime areas in London - Soho, Covent Garden and Chinatown. With annual visitors to the West End of more than 300m, a number that is expected to grow when the Elizabeth railway line opens, Shaftesbury is in a pretty sweet spot.
Still, headline numbers at the half-year stage were slewed by a slowdown in the portfolio valuation uplift from £183m a year earlier to £58m. Crucially, rents received grew by nearly 10 per cent, and even excluding acquisitions and major refurbishment schemes the gain was nearly 9 per cent, as more of the reversionary potential was crystallised into contracted cash flow.
Demand for space remains high, with existing tenants tending to renew rather than leave. So vacancy rates remained low at just 2.2 per cent, the slight majority of this under offer. To meet demand, Shaftesbury has around 8 per cent of its entire floor space under refurbishment, notably the Charing Cross Road/Chinatown project, which will include units of 32,000 sq ft on a 330-foot frontage due for completion by the middle of the 2017 calendar year.
Analysts at Peel Hunt are forecasting adjusted net asset value at the September 2016 year-end of 950p, from 869p a year earlier.
| SHAFTESBURY (SHB) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 934p | MARKET VALUE: | £2.6bn | |
| TOUCH: | 934-935p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 976p | LOW: 810p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.5% | TRADING PROPERTIES: | nil | |
| PREMIUM TO NAV: | 9% | NET DEBT: | 29% | |
| INVESTMENT PROPERTIES: | £3.16bn* | |||
| Half-year to 31 Mar | Net asset value (p) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 739 | 180 | 64.8 | 6.825 |
| 2016 | 857 | 80 | 28.8 | 7.15 |
| % change | +16 | -56 | -56 | +5 |
Ex-div: 9 Jun Payment: 1 Jul *Includes joint ventures | ||||
