Langtree upbeat after focusing on strategic sites

PROPERTY group Langtree is confident of an upswing in the property market after focusing on securing a number of strategic sites.

The Newton-le-Willows group saw revenues and profits tumble in the year to June, but it said this was down to a lack of development activity.

Instead it focused on its rental estate of 4 million sq ft and progressing future development sites with local authorities, such as the former Parkside Colliery in Newton-le-Willows and the 12-acre “southern gateway” in Warrington.

During the year Langtree took control of Network Space, a joint venture with the Homes and Communities Agency which owns 22 business parks based at former coalfield sites across the North and the Midlands. And since the year end it won the race for Shell’s 1,600-acre Carrington site in Greater Manchester.

Langtree Real Estate Holdings, which employs 65 staff, recorded revenues of £16.4m, down 56% from £37.2m. Pre-tax profits fell to £3.1m from £12.9m. Occupancy was 85% with a passing rent of £17.4m, up from £16.5m at the beginning of the year. During the period Langtree acquired a 42,000 sq ft industrial building in Oldham and the Speke Hall and Sky Park industrial parls in south Liverpool.

Group Chief Executive John Downes said: “Conditions remain challenging but we believe the last year may have seen a turning point in the market. The year to June 2013 was all about progressing strategic opportunities and advancing our position on key sites so that we would be well placed to take advantage of improving conditions.
 
“As always we continue to work hard to get the best return from our existing assets and with the significant investment programme on new opportunities that we have implemented we are in very good shape as a business as the market begins to improve. We will continue to explore new and innovative ways of delivering high quality development schemes with our partners and believe the year ahead will be an extremely successful one.”

In his report, Bill Ainscough, who has a majority stake in the business, said: “We have significantly expanded our already sizeable property portfolio and have secured positions on a number of major new development opportunities by taking advantage of our financial strength, lower values and generally reduced activity in the market.

“As long as market conditions remain favourable for acquisitions we will continue to be active in the market and further significant additions to both the development and the property portfolio can be expected during the coming year.

“I am now hopeful that 2012/2013 will be the turning point in terms of both rental levels and property values generally. We have seen values stabilise this year and we are now cautiously seeing limited signs of growth as stock is taken up whilst new supply has been very limited over the past few years and is likely to remain the case for the foreseeable future.”

The group has two bank facilities of £26m and £55m which both expire on April 30 2015.