Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust's annual results make for grim reading, but the key numbers were published three months ago and this year should be much better. Over the year to 31 March, the company's book value per share fell 10.8 per cent to 45.1p. The biggest factor was the 5.5 per cent fall in the portfolio valuation, but uncovered dividends, which had to be paid from the group's capital, compounded the decline.
The company is, nonetheless, in a much stronger position now than it was a year ago. That's because it secured £130m of long-term insurance debt in April, enabling it to pay off an expensive and expiring securitised loan as well as associated interest rate swaps. Its net loan to value is now a very manageable 39 per cent. Manager Duncan Owen says he can now start to look for acquisitions again, refocusing the portfolio towards "winning towns" such as Brighton, Cambridge and some London villages that have above-average GDP growth.
