Flexible office group Workspace has turned around its loss of a year ago, its chief executive welcoming a step up in workers’ return to the office.
The company posted a profit before tax for the year to 31 March of £124m, compared to 2021’s loss of £235.7m. Trading profit stood at £46.9m, up by 21% year-on-year, driven by a 6.4% rise in net rental income to £86.7m. Net tangible assets per share were up 5.3% to £9.88 and the portfolio value rose by 3% to £2.4bn.
Acquisitions during the year included the purchase of the Old Dairy in Shoreditch, EC2, for £43m and Busworks in Islington, N7 for £45m, while the company sold 13-17 Fitzroy Street, W1, for £92m and Highway Business Park in Limehouse, E1, for £24m.
The company is now preparing to launch disposal plans for some of the assets acquired in its takeover of McKay Securities.
The company said last month that it had received “significant interest” from potential buyers for McKay’s light industrial assets, most of which are in the South East of England. In its results today it said it was “likely” to dispose of the portfolio, which accounted for roughly a third of McKay’s assets.
Chief executive Graham Clemett said: “Our focus over the past year has been to support our customers’ return to the office, rebuild like-for-like occupancy back to 90% and drive trading profit growth…
“Our recent acquisitions and project activity give us the opportunity to grow and spread our footprint more broadly, exploiting the scalability of our operating platform. The attractively priced acquisition of McKay will allow us to accelerate our growth in London and provides the opportunity to extend our reach into the South East. We continue to be disciplined in our investment activity, recycling assets that don’t meet our demanding return requirements.”
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