Helical Bar's flamboyant chief executive Mike Slade expects buying opportunities that only arise "once or twice in a lifetime" as the commercial property market continues to slide.
"Today's wipeouts will be tomorrow's profits," he says. "I'm sitting on cash, but I'm happy to be patient and I'm not buying yet." Indeed, Helical boasts cash and unused bank facilities of £95m, and has secured £50m of new facilities, plus a £38m extension of an existing arrangement.
The figures were solid enough, but there wasn't an interim portfolio valuation, sparing Helical the swingeing revaluation falls seen at property peers. Mr Slade echoed the comments made by Brixton's chief executive , claiming that standard leave much to be desired. Nevertheless, Helical is something of a special case, having sold most of its investments at the top of the market to focus on longer-term development opportunities - where management boasts plenty of experience.
On a diluted European Public Real Estate Association basis, which basically adds in fair value estimates for such items as the development book or financial instruments, Cazenove expects full-year net asset value (NAV) of 290p.
| HELICAL BAR (HLCL) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 260p | MARKET VALUE: | £248.9m | |
| TOUCH: | 259-260p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 410p | LOW: 227p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.7% | TRADING STOCK: | £188m | |
| INVEST PROPERTIES: | £309m | NET DEBT: | 78% | |
| DISCOUNT TO NAV: | 8% | |||
| Half-year to 30 Sep | Net asset value (p) | Pretax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Net div per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 323 | 7.31 | 14.3 | 1.75 |
| 2008 | 284 | 12.7 | 9.20 | 1.75 |
| % change | -12 | +74 | -36 | - |
Ex-div: 3 Dec Payment: 23 Dec | ||||
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