Regeneration specialist reaps rewards of ‘active asset management’
Rotherham-headquartered property development business Harworth Group submitted planning applications for over 1.3m sq ft of commercial space and 1,300 residential plots in 2019.
The business has published a trading update for the financial year ended 31 December 2019.
It says it delivered a solid operational performance in the second half of the year, meaning it anticipates financial performance for the year will be in line with expectations.
During this period, Harworth completed land purchases totalling over 33 acres adjacent to two of its major developments for a combined consideration of £6.25m.
The company also sold 194.86 acres of non-core land as part of its strategy to reduce its agricultural landholding and exit from the North East.
As of 31 December 2019, Harworth said it had over 4.1m sq ft of employment space and over 3,000 residential plots in the planning system awaiting determination.
And 43 acres of serviced commercial land have been sold at Harworth’s joint venture Gateway 45 Leeds site to PLP, for the development of up to 855,000 sq ft of industrial and distribution space.
Owen Michaelson, chief executive officer, said: “Our results reflect that the majority of our value gains are realised through the active asset management of our underlying land and property portfolio, including strong residential and commercial land sales and continued efforts to improve the depth and breadth of our income portfolio.
“Our regional markets in the North of England and Midlands remain solid and should benefit further from emerging government policy.
“Looking forward, the planning headwinds that we reported at the half year still remain in place and we continue to manage this risk accordingly on a site-by-site basis.
“We will continue to deploy our capital wisely through our regional operating model on appropriate new land and property opportunities in order to drive returns whilst supporting the ongoing regeneration of our regions through the delivery of new homes and jobs.”
Harworth will announce its preliminary full year results for the financial year ended 31 December 2019 on 17 March 2020.
