Helical Bar is “back on track”, affirms veteran chief executive Mike Slade. The company made a modest development profits of £5.2m during the year which was at least enough to offset £4.5m of write-downs on the trading portfolio. That, and much higher net rental income of £22.9m – Helical has been using cheap debt to plough money into investment assets and improve cash flow – brought the group back into profit.
But Mr Slade is much more excited about future development profits, particularly from sites around the City of London, which he expects to be realised over the next two years. He says his team has been “quietly working away” with planning applications and deals in anticipation of a gradual property recovery starting around March next year. As well as a three City-fringe office developments, Helical has mixed-use schemes in slightly off-prime West London pitches like White City and Fulham Wharf.
Helical’s high-yielding investment portfolio is mainly retail outside London. Impressively, given that sector’s current fortunes, the group posted a slight revaluation gain for the year, which Mr Slade attributes to strong asset management. But net asset value (NAV) still fell marginally because earnings didn't quite cover dividend payments. Broker Peel Hunt expects adjusted NAV of 256p for 2013 (2012: 250p).
HELICAL BAR (HLCL) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 170p | MARKET VALUE: | £201m | |
| TOUCH: | 169.8-170p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 275p | LOW: 162p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.0% | TRADING PROP: | £107m | |
| DISCOUNT TO NAV: | 22% | |||
| INVESTMENT PROP: | £327m | NET DEBT: | 90% | |
| Year to 31 Mar | Net asset value (p) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 293 | -24.3 | -13.5 | 4.50 |
| 2009 | 226 | -71.9 | -56.6 | 4.50 |
| 2010 | 228 | 7.90 | 9.1 | 4.75 |
| 2011 | 218 | -6.28 | -3.6 | 4.90 |
| 2012 | 217 | 7.41 | 6.5 | 5.15 |
| % change | - | - | - | +5 |
Ex-div: 27 Jun Payment: 26 Jul | ||||
