Return to profit for developer
REGENERATION company Urban Splash – the developer of Sheffield’s Park Hill and Saxton in Leeds – has returned to profit after a year of significant change in which it sold a large chunk of its residential portfolio and refinanced its remaining debt.
The business, led by chairman Tom Bloxham, was hamstrung by debts of around £240m but raised £77m last summer by selling 650 apartments at schemes in Manchester, Plymouth, Bristol and Leeds to social landlord Places for People.
This allowed it to repay debts with its lender and the Homes & Communities Agency. A later deal with the London-based property investor, the Pears Group, let it refinance a £113m syndicated loan.
A statement issued by the group, ahead of a filing at Companies House, said it made a pre-tax profit of £500,000 in the 18 months to the end of September. In the previous accounts, the year to March 2012, the group made a £15.4m loss. Overall turnover grew from £33.6m to £132.6m, with the Places for People deal accounting for the significant increase.
Urban Splash said its balance sheet position worsened mainly due to a £16.3m downward revaluation of the group’s commercial properties.
Mr Bloxham said: “This financial year saw us successfully conclude a fundamental restructure and refinance of our business which has addressed the legacy debt position of the group and created a new corporate structure enabling us to grow, start new development projects and form new joint venture relationships which we believe will be key to the future success of the business.”
He added: “With our restructure and refinance behind us I believe that together with our new partners and our established brand, we are in a position to respond to the many opportunities now presented by the property market in the UK – we have lots of new ideas and we hope to be announcing some of them soon.”
