The company’s move to EPRA accounting not only revealed substantial hidden value in its land holdings in the interim results posted yesterday, but Inland enhanced shareholder value over and above the gains stated due to a change in accounting treatment of its land holdings. In fact, analyst John Cahill at brokerage Stifel Europe estimates that EPRA net asset value per share actually increased from 77p at the June 2015 year-end to 84.4p at the end of December 2015, a rise of 12 per cent. IFRS net asset value was 44p a share at the end of June 2015, rising to 53p at the end of December 2015, highlighting the value creation in the period.
Part of this reflects a £13.9m revaluation of 76 houses at Wilton Park, a former MoD site in affluent Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. These are now held in the books at £40m, or £526,000 each. Inland has applied for planning permission to build more than 300 houses on the site and 21,000 sq ft of commercial space, so there is a good chance of significantly higher revaluation gains and profits to be made from this site alone.