Property group’s solid foundations providing confidence in event of Brexit tremors

An aerial shot of the Mucklow Park site in Tyseley

Property group A&J Mucklow is “in very good health” and has yet to see any impact from the UK’s upcoming departure from the European Union on its business.

The stock market-listed firm has seen a reduction in its vacancy rate, down 0.4 percentage points to 2.4%.

Rupert Mucklow

Rupert Mucklow, chairman of A&J Mucklow, said: “Prospects for the second half year are encouraging, with further rental growth expected, and so far, it would appear that our existing industrial and logistics properties have not been adversely affected by the current uncertainty caused by the Brexit negotiations.”

There is some evidence of a pre-Brexit boost for the industrial property sector, benefitting from companies seeking additional space as they increase their holdings of raw materials and finished products.

However the company said it is “mindful of the fact that leaving the European Union may cause some economic and political volatility, which could have an impact on our business, in terms of loss of tenants, changes in yields and ERVs”.

It expects its Midlands-focused portfolio to perform well even in the event of a difficult transition. Mucklow highlighted its “diverse tenant base and high occupancy rate, coupled with low gearing and long-term fixed rate debt facilities” for its confidence.

Financial figures released to the stock market this morning have shown a good performance during the six months to December 2018.

Rupert Mucklow, chairman of A&J Mucklow, said: “Occupancy levels have remained high and our rent roll has continued to grow, mainly on the back of reletting space and achieving higher rental levels, particularly from our industrial and logistics properties. This has resulted in further improvements in underlying pre-tax profit and net asset value (NAV) per share.”

Underlying pre-tax profits were up 6% to £8.5m for the second half of 2018. This is before the impact of the revaluation of its portfolio, which added £8.7m to its statutory pre-tax profits figure.

Its basic NAV per share rose 3% during the period to 572p.

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