Since the EU referendum, 'uncertainty' has become the watchword in UK property, but few big players have been bold enough to claim that it will help them. But such is the unstoppable rise of e-commerce, the half-year tone at Tritax Big Box Reit (BBOX) was decidedly upbeat, despite the brief post-vote market sell-off in the property logistics investor's shares. In fact, fund manager Colin Godfrey told us that had the company not been in a close period, he and his partners would have bought shares as the stock dropped at the end of June.
This confidence was underlined by three new properties acquired in August, including an Amazon logistics centre in Peterborough at a healthy initial yield of 5.6 per cent. Post-period, the group also managed to secure a £72m long-term loan with Canada Life at a 2.64 per cent fixed rate, setting a new benchmark for some already cheap borrowing costs. However, with the loan-to-value ratio now at 40 per cent once forward-funded development commitments are included, any additional debt financing will need to be complemented by an equity raise.
Analysts at Jefferies are forecasting pre-tax profit of £46.9m and net asset value (NAV) of 134p for the December year-end, rising to £59.8m and 143p in 2017.
TRITAX BIG BOX (BBOX) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 138p | MARKET VALUE: | £1.16bn | |
| TOUCH: | 138-138.7p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 141p | LOW: 115p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 4.4% | PE RATIO: | 9 | |
| PREMIUM TO NAV: | 8% | NET DEBT: | 35% | |
| INVESTMENT PROPERTIES: | £1.5bn | |||
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Net asset value (p) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 117 | 71.0 | 12.6 | 3.0 |
| 2016 | 128 | 53.7 | 6.7 | 3.1 |
| % change | +9 | -24 | -47 | +3 |
Ex-div: 18 Aug Payment: 25 Aug | ||||
