‘Solid performance’ sees Mucklow boost profit
BLACK Country property investor and developer Mucklow (A&J) Group has seen a healthy rise in rental income and pre-tax profit yet the valuation of its portfolio has fallen into deficit.
In its full-year results for the period ended June 30, 2011, the Halesowen plc saw underlying pre-tax profit, excluding revaluation movements, rise year-on-year from £11.3m to £12.2m and gross rental income climb from £17m to £18.3m.
Basic earnings per share have dipped sharply from 60.9p to 22.4p and net asset value has stabilised at £188.6m, a climb of £2.7m.
Net debt has risen from £49.7m to £67.7m and the valuation of its property portfolio over book value fell from a gain of £23.5m in 2010 to a deficit of £400,000.
This is despite the portfolio’s overall value rising from £236.9m to £261.3m.
Ordinary dividend per share has climbed year-on-year from 17.9p to 18.5p per share.
Chairman Rupert Mucklow said: “I am pleased to report another solid performance by the group.
“The company took advantage of a fairly lacklustre property market to acquire some attractive long term investment properties.
“Enquiry levels for existing industrial space across the Midlands picked up a little in the second half of the year, but the volume of lettings in the region was generally low, while the supply and choice of available properties remained high.
“There were some potential pre-let opportunities floating around the market earlier in the year, but many of these appear to be on hold until economic conditions improve.”
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