Urban Exposure (UEX) joined the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) as recently as May 2018, so it’s still early days for this specialist in the provision of finance for property developers.
Operating losses of £1.7m included exceptional costs and share-based expenses of £1.4m, although there is £46.8m of unrestricted cash on the balance sheet. Committed loans totalled £525m, with a gross projected income over the life of the loans of £69m, of which its share is £27m.
The loans are financed by establishing lending facilities, which so far include £165m with UBS and a similar amount with global investment specialist KKR.
All loans appear on the balance sheet at origination, but in order to allow further lending, these loans are sold or syndicated to third parties. The focus is on generating interest and fees from originating loans on its balance sheet before moving them into asset management structures from which management fee income is generated from institutional investors.
In 2019, the group expects to commit to new lending of £700m-£900m, which would result in projected aggregate income of £32m-£42m.
Operating costs of £5m were higher than expected as the group increased staff numbers from 16 at flotation to 25, although in terms of the loan book this represented just 0.81 per cent.
A total of 16 loans were made, with particular emphasis on establishing geographical diversification, with funding provided in regional cities such as Birmingham and Manchester.
| URBAN EXPOSURE (UEX) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 67p | MARKET VALUE: | £105m | |
| TOUCH: | 65-68p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 114p | LOW: 62p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 4%† | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 95p | LEVERAGE: | 1 | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2018* | 3.90 | -2.0 | -1.2 | 2.5p † |
| % change | - | - | - | - |
| Ex-div: | tba | |||
| Payment: | tba | |||
| *10 April 2018 (date of incorporation) to 31 Dec 2018. The UEX business has previously operated through different affiliated entities – no valid comparatives. †Half-year dividend of 0.83p + balance of 1.67p expected to be declared as a final dividend at the annual meeting on 2 May 2019. | ||||
