"The market has definitely been picking up," reports Rupert Mucklow, chairman of the eponymous industrial landlord. Bullish on the prospects for rents and property values, which are 30 per cent below their 2007 peak, he has been buying all the modern industrial assets he can find in the company's Midlands stomping ground. But sellers are scarce at current valuations, so Mucklow (MKLW) only made two acquisitions in the year to 30 June, a warehouse by a motorway junction at Ashby-de-la-Zouch and a multi-let trade park in Oldbury.
These pushed the company's borrowing levels slightly higher, but at £74.9m net debt remains at a very comfortable level. The acquisitions completed in June, so had little impact on underlying pre-tax profits for the year, which were effectively flat at £13.5m, or 22.4p per share post tax.
Reported profits shot up, however, because Mucklow's valuers partly reversed last year's steep write-down in the portfolio valuation. The company's industrial properties, which make up two-thirds of the total, were marked up 3.5 per cent, offsetting further declines in the office and retail portfolios. The valuation gain also boosted adjusted book value per share from 297p to 305p. Broker Oriel Securities expects book value to reach 315p next June.
A&J MUCKLOW (MKLW) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 445p | MARKET VALUE: | £267m | |
| TOUCH: | 445-450p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 456p | LOW: 325p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 4.4% | TRADING PROPERTIES: | £0.46m | |
| PREMIUM TO NAV: | 47% | |||
| INVESTMENT PROPERTIES: | £262m | NET DEBT: | 41% | |
| Year to 31 Mar | Net asset value (p) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 266 | -52.0 | -86.7 | 17.7 |
| 2010 | 310 | 36.0 | 60.9 | 18.0 |
| 2011 | 314 | 12.9 | 22.4 | 18.5 |
| 2012 | 295 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 19.1 |
| 2013 | 303 | 16.3 | 27.2 | 19.6 |
| % change | +3 | - | - | +3 |
Ex-div: 27 Nov Payment: 2 Jan | ||||
