The 2016 financial year saw assets under management at First Property Group (FPO) up 8 per cent to £353m – particularly impressive considering one of the group’s major funds was completely wound down during the period. The real-estate asset manager sold all eight investments in its Fprop PDR fund which specialised in buying, building and re-selling commercial properties in the UK. This meant that performance fees from the fund were slashed 73 per cent to £0.9m and the group didn’t benefit from high margin one-off payments, which sent pre-tax profits down for the first time in three years.
However, chief executive Ben Habib actually said the change meant the group was now much less reliant on the lumpy non-recurring revenues from the PDR fund. Instead the majority of turnover is now derived from rental income obtained through the group’s solely owned properties located in Poland and Romania. Thanks to the first full year rent contribution from these properties – which were purchased in the latter stages of 2014 – revenue from the group properties division doubled.
Recent investments include nine Lidl supermarkets in Romania and a shopping centre in Poland. Although these were only announced in early 2016, they contributed £29,000 to pre-tax profits in the year, which is expected to materially increase in FY2017.
Broker Arden Partners has upgraded its adjusted pre-tax profit forecast for 2017 to £7.2m, but leaves forecast EPS unchanged at 4.6p (FY2016 £7.7m and 5.1p).
FIRST PROPERTY GROUP (FPO) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 44p | MARKET VALUE: | £ 51m | |
| TOUCH: | 43.5-45p | 12-MONTH HIGH / LOW: | 56p | 36p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.4% | PE RATIO: | 10 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 28p | NET DEBT | 310% | |
| Year to 31 Mar | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 9.3 | 4.0 | 2.9 | 1.08 |
| 2013 | 10.6 | 3.5 | 2.3 | 1.08 |
| 2014 | 18.0 | 6.6 | 4.8 | 1.12 |
| 2015 | 18.5 | 8.1 | 7.2 | 1.35 |
| 2016 | 22.0 | 7.3 | 4.4 | 1.50 |
| % change | +19 | -9 | -39 | +11 |
Ex-div:01 Sep Payment:30 Sep | ||||
