City round-up: PRS REIT; Altitude Group
Manchester-based private rented sector housing group, PRS REIT, has published “excellent” interim results today (March 31).
The group achieved revenues of £32.9m in the six months to December 31, 2024, a 17% improvement on the previous year.
Pre-tax profits were £46.2m, which was a 52% improvement.
The group said profitability was in line with management expectations. The year-on-year increase reflected a combination of revenue growth and the difference in gains from fair value adjustments on investment property between the two periods, with £34.7m recognised in the period under review compared with £20.5m in the comparative period in the prior year.
The interim dividend has been increased from 2p per share to 2.1p per share.
PRS REIT has 5,478 completed and contracted homes. This is compared with 5,576 a year ago.
Occupancy levels stand at 96%, against 97% in 2023, and rent collection levels are 99%.
The company is current up for sale and it revealed today that it has received a number of offers. It said a select number of parties were invited to undertake due diligence and discussions are ongoing.
Non-executive chair, Geeta Nanda, said: “Interim results are excellent, reflecting the continued strong performance of the company’s portfolio of rental homes, the largest of its kind in the UK.
“The final tranche of new homes is now due by the end of June, at which point the PRS REIT’s portfolio will amount to 5,478 completed homes with an estimated rental value of around £70m per annum.
“The shortage of high quality family rental homes in the UK combined with rising demand continue to favour prospects for the PRS REIT.
“The strategic review and formal sale process remain in process and further updates will be made in due course, and by no later than the end of calendar Q2 2025.”
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Nichole Stella
Altitude Group, the Manchester-based operator of a leading marketplace for the global promotional products industry, is forecasting significant year on year growth in the 2025 financial year, it said today.
In an update ahead of publishing its results for the year to March 31, 2025, scheduled for July 29, it said revenue for the period is expected to be within the range of £27m to £29m, an increase of between 12.5% and 20.8% on the previous year.
The company said it has yet to receive confirmation of the value of important AIM Partner revenues and graduation merchandise revenue for FY25, hence the cautious range.
Adjusted operating profit for the year is correspondingly expected to be within the range of £2.7m to £2.9m (FY24 £2.4m) an increase of between 12.5% and 20.8% on FY24.
Expected FY25 revenue and adjusted operating profit have been adversely impacted by currency exchange movements of £0.6m and £0.1m, respectively.
Adjusted profit before tax for the year is expected to be within the range of £1.2m to £1.4m (FY24 £1.2m), and net cash is expected to be c.£0.4m as at March 31, 2025.
Altitude said that, while there was belief that the new governmental administration would positively impact the US economy in the first quarter of 2025, uncertainty regarding trade wars and tariffs have continued to impact the US economy.
As such, the promotional products industry has experienced a well-publicised continued softness of activity. This softness has had an impact on the group’s promotional products focused divisions reflecting deferred purchasing decisions.
Moreover, there is a widely shared industry outlook that market conditions, including the effects of tariffs, may continue to affect demand through 2025. However, as business sentiment improves, historical trends suggest that demand for promotional products tends to rebound rapidly.
The group’s disruptive collegiate Gear Shop solution has continued to expand in the second half of FY25.
In November last year it reported a robust pipeline of new university tenders. It has been awarded a further seven new university contracts with additional aggregate annual expected average revenues of c.$6.5m across the full academic year.
The most recent of these awarded contracts has an annualised value of $4m across multiple locations over a five-year contract with an option to renew for an additional year.
This award represents the largest collegiate market win since the Gear Shop division’s launch.
These awards, when fully operational, bring the total expected annualised average revenues to $16.7m from operating 28 contracts at 45 locations – an increase of 75.8% from the November trading update.
Altitude said it has continued to grow significantly in FY25, increasing its diversification into adjacent markets to its core AIM Services business.
Recent Gear Shop contract awards add another layer for future growth as the contracts become implemented and go live during FY26.
The board said it remains confident that the group will continue to see growth from this diversified strategy, irrespective of any short term uncertainties around the impact of US tariffs and fluctuations in currency due to the weakening of US Dollar.
CEO, Nichole Stella, said: “We are delighted to announce having been awarded our largest Gear Shop contract to date, $4m per annum.
“Preparing for and being awarded this agreement has been a focus for the team for several months. Paired with our additional awards and building to 45+ locations in under three years is a strategic win for the group in its expansion of the Gear Shop solution.”
She added: “Whilst we are disappointed that recent market softness due to the widely reported tariff and trading environment has increased uncertainty for our year end, we see this as a well understood and temporary slowdown in an otherwise robust industry. We remain confident in the business and its future growth.”
