St Modwen sees profits surge
DEVELOPER St Modwen has seen its profits before tax increase by 68% over a 12 month period as it said Yorkshire’s commercial property market continues to recover.
Announcing its annual results for the year ended November 30, the firm revealed profit before all tax of £138.1m (2013: £82.2m).
Property profits were up 45% to £57.7m (2013: £39.8m).
Richard Bannister, Yorkshire and North East regional manager, said: “The
commercial property market across Yorkshire and the North East has continued its recovery through 2014.
“We have seen an upturn in occupier demand for our income producing properties, securing 23 new leases totalling over 130,000 sq ft during the past 12 months. These leases, together with new acquisitions, have added over £2.2m to the region’s gross rent roll. The sale of Interchange Industrial Estate in Rotherham in October further underlined the growing strength of the investment market in the region.
“The purchase of Billingham Town Centre for £14.3m has further strengthened our existing portfolio of retail centres. We are now progressing plans to regenerate the Town Centre to deliver a much improved retail, leisure and business environment.
“Our hands-on approach to active asset management has enabled us to add value and make meaningful improvements to the properties in our portfolio. Work is now underway to refurbish Waterdale Shopping Centre, an important town centre location in Doncaster. Since we acquired the centre in 2013, we have secured a number of new occupiers and seen a significant rise in footfall.
“As the market continues to improve across the region, we intend to increase our commercial development pipeline.”
Financial highlights of the period in question include its debt portfolio fully refinanced, with earliest maturity now 2018, and the successful launch of a £100m convertible bond.
St Modwen has also benefited from a resurgent residential market. Housebuilding activities delivered a 167% increase in residential profits to £24m (2013: £9m).
Bill Oliver, chief executive of S. Modwen, said: “This has been an exceptional year for St Modwen and we have achieved significant progress across all of our major projects as well as increasing our active pipeline of commercial development opportunities to over 3m sq ft of space.
“The residential part of the business continues to perform well with good sales rates achieved throughout the year and we anticipate a sustained performance into 2015.
“Across the UK, we continued to grow the business, capitalising on the upturn in the regional property market and we look forward to continuing this level of success throughout the coming year.”
