Urban&Civic (UANC) is taking advantage of the rapid population expansion and housing shortage in the counties outside London. The group – which provides brownfield sites to housebuilders for development – completed 174 plots during the first half, with a further 180 reserved or exchanged, and expects to comfortably exceed its target of 315 for the full year.
Those plot sales included 115 at Priors Hall in Northamptonshire and 49 at its Alconbury site. With the group receiving a third of the value once the homes are sold, its adjusted net asset value (NAV) was boosted by 4 per cent to 316p a share. In the case of the former site, annual sales are running at a rate around 25 per cent higher than the 200 quoted upon its acquisition.
Including the large site discount the group receives – calculated by applying a wholesale discount to the open market value of its standard residential land – a further 88p a share was added to adjusted NAV. That followed the inclusion of its Wintringham site post-planning consent. The £48m sale of newly opened Hampton Hotel near Stansted Airport also boosted pre-tax profit, although it had already been recognised in the group’s adjusted NAV.
Analysts at Stifel expect adjusted NAV of 326p a share at September 2018, up from 304p at the same time last year.
| URBAN & CIVIC (UANC) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 318p | MARKET VALUE: | £461m | |
| TOUCH: | 315-318p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 325p | LOW: 237p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1% | TRADING PROP: | £290m | |
| PREMIUM TO NAV: | 21% | NET DEBT: | 24% | |
| INVESTMENT PROP: | £178m | |||
| Half-year to 31 Mar | Net asset value (p) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2017 | 255 | 4.15 | 2.8 | 1.2 |
| 2018 | 262 | 10.1 | 6.2 | 1.3 |
| % change | +3 | +143 | +121 | +8 |
| Ex-div: | 7 Jun | |||
| Payment: | 13 Jul |
