In a year “marked by growing political, planning and economic uncertainty”, U&I’s (UAI) development and trading gains could, arguably, have been worse. In the event, the property developer and investor reported a figure of £42.8m. True, this represented a significant come down from £68.3m in FY2018 – and was slightly below the bottom end of management’s £45m-£50m guided range. But the group cited a “robust performance” against a “very challenging backdrop” – without which, management thinks it would have exceeded its targets.
Preston Barracks in Brighton constituted the single largest contributor to gains – bringing in £13.8m, far ahead of U&I’s £2m-£3m goal. This was achieved largely through the sale of its residential component to one of the UK’s largest housing providers, Optivo, as well as further gains from planning overage (payments related to successful planning) from its partnership with Scape Student Living.
Looking ahead, U&I has revised down its gains guidance from £45m-£55m to £35-£45m for FY2020. More encouragingly, it lifted guidance for FY2021 from £35m-£45m to £45m-£55m.
Broker Peel Hunt now expects adjusted net asset value (NAV) of 288p for FY2020 – down from the previously forecast 317p.
| U&I (UAI) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 164p | MARKET VALUE: | £206m | |
| TOUCH: | 164-170p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 253p | LOW: 164p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.6% | TRADING PROPERTIES: | £204m | |
| DISCOUNT TO NAV: | 43% | |||
| INVESTMENT PROPERTIES | £264m** | NET DEBT: | 39% | |
| Year to 28 Feb | Net asset value (p) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2015 | 276 | 34.8 | 26.8 | 5.9* |
| 2016 | 291 | 25.8 | 17.5 | 5.9* |
| 2017 | 278 | -1.7 | -2.4 | 5.9* |
| 2018 | 303 | 48.2 | 32.2 | 5.9* |
| 13 months to 31 Mar | ||||
| 2019 | 289 | 6.3 | 4.2 | 5.9* |
| % change | -5 | -87 | -87 | - |
| Ex-div: | 08 Aug | |||
| Payment: | 06 Sep | |||
*Not including special dividends of 8p in 2015 and 2016, 2.8p in 2017, 12p in 2018 and 4.1p in 2019 **Includes investments in associates of £5.8m and joint ventures of £104m | ||||
