City round-up: Regional REIT; Supreme; Kape Technologies
Property firm Regional REIT reported better interim revenues and profits for the six months to June 30, 2022, today.
The firm, which has offices in Old Trafford overseeing properties throughout the North West, made net rental and property income of £28.944m, up from £25.369m in 2021. Pre-tax profits were £28.252m, which compare with £18.013m the previous year.
Total rent collection for the period was 98.7% of rent due, higher than the 96.4% of rent collected for the equivalent period in 2021. The rent roll was £72m, against £72.1m to December 31.
The first half dividend is recommended at 3.3p per share, compared with 3.2p the previous year. Regional REIT is targeting a full year dividend of 6.6p per share.
The company disposed of three properties located in Reading, Lincoln, and Colchester, which had completed their individual business plans for £7.2m, in line with June 30, 2022 valuation.
Since July 1, 2022, the group has exchanged on 20 new leases, totalling 46,871 sq ft. When fully occupied these leases will provide £0.7m per annum of rental income.
Stephen Inglis, CEO of London and Scottish Property Investment Management, the asset manager, said: “Regional REIT has again achieved a robust operational and financial performance despite the turbulence within the UK economy, and as the pandemic measures have been lifted across the country, we have continued to benefit from serious enquiries and an increasing level of occupation throughout the estate.
“Across the portfolio, approximately 98.7% of all our tenants are now back in occupation in some form, be it full time or hybrid, with the 14 tenants who have not returned to date, indicating that they intend to return shortly.
The easing of pandemic restrictions saw the normalisation of rental collections with 98.7% collected for the six months to 30 June 2022, supporting our high dividend payments.”
He added: “In the period, capital continues to be recycled from non-core assets and properties where asset management plans have been completed, to secure a net initial yield enhancement of some 290bps between sales and acquisitions. The acquired high quality properties also present additional attractive asset management opportunities to further drive shareholder value over the medium term.
“Although inflation, the energy crisis and political change cast a shadow over the economy, our historic and continued focus upon mitigating risk wherever possible, has resulted in the group debt profile being 100% fixed, hedged or capped. Therefore, should interest rates move even higher as many predict, the weighted average cost of current borrowing will not exceed 3.5%.
“With the experience and expertise across the platform, underpinned by our defensive positioning throughout the portfolio, I am confident of navigating the wider macro challenges facing the economy.”
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Sandy Chadha, CEO, Supreme
Supreme, the Stretford-based manufacturer, supplier, and brand owner of fast-moving consumer products, headed by CEO Sandy Chadha, has delivered a strong performance for the year to March 31, 2022, shareholders will hear at this morning’s annual general meeting.
Chairman, Paul McDonald, will tell shareholders: “Supreme delivered a strong performance across the year ended 31 March 2022, underpinned by organic growth across our leading divisions, as well as acquiring highly complementary businesses.
“We have continued to develop an extensive network of loyal customers across the retail space, and we are delighted with the progress we have made in increasing our retail penetration, alongside the positive impact of recent brand and product launches.
“Trading for the current financial year remains in line with market expectations, with the business well placed to deliver on our strategic aspirations, supported by the recent acquisitions of vaping business Liberty Flights Limited and the purchase of trade and assets of Cuts Ice Limited and Flavour Core Limited.
“Our fast-growing Vaping category continues to underpin the group’s growth. Alongside the continued strong performance of our 88vape brand, including new customer wins across grocery and convenience retail, we remain committed to evolving our Vaping segment as evidenced with the acquisitions of Liberty Flights in June 2022, and Cuts Ice and Flavour Core in August 2022.
“Highly complementary and immediately earnings enhancing, the two transactions will deliver scale to the group and are projected to generate additional cross-sell opportunities, whilst the integration of Cuts Ice will enable us to focus on expanding our European footprint, an integral component of our overarching growth strategy.
“The rest of the group continues to perform in line with expectation and the overhead base continues to be tightly managed.
“As the UK Government and global health experts continue to endorse vaping as an effective smoking cessation tool, Supreme recognises the significant role the group will play in supporting a tobacco-free UK by continuing to offer both credible and safer alternatives for nicotine consumption. By delivering great value, high quality products to market via our extensive distribution network, we remain well placed to help mitigate the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on consumers.
“Looking ahead, we continue to explore additional M&A opportunities to complement the group’s organic growth, and the board remains confident in Supreme’s strategic ambitions, underpinned by the exciting prospects within Vaping.”
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Ido Erlichman
Isle of Man-based digital security and privacy software business, Kape Technologies, has raised $240.5m (£190.14m), through a share placing and an offer to the public, launched earlier this week.
The board said it is pleased with the very strong response to the fundraise from new and existing institutional shareholders, including a number of blue-chip institutional investors from the UK, Europe and Israel, and through the PrimaryBid retail offer. The fundraise was significantly oversubscribed.
The net proceeds of the fundraise are intended to be used to accelerate the group’s growth through acquisitions, the board of Kape believing that global market conditions have given rise to a number of highly attractive potential acquisition opportunities at compelling valuations.
Chief executive, Ido Erlichman, said: “We are delighted to have received such a strong endorsement of both our business and our growth strategy from new and existing shareholders. We have worked extremely hard to create the largest pure-play digital privacy software provider globally but believe we have much more that we can accomplish.
“This fresh injection of capital will help us accelerate our organic growth plans alongside capitalising on potential acquisition opportunities.
“I look forward to updating all our key stakeholders on our ongoing progress as we seek to fully exploit our market-leading position, from which we provide our seven million customers with cutting edge digital privacy and security solutions.”
