Hemingway Properties is on the hunt for mixed office and retail properties following a number of sales in the first half of the year.
This week the company announced that profits for the six months to June have more than doubled to £5.4m, up from £2.3m in 1996. Profits were bolstered by a one-off £4m contribution from properties sold out of Hemingway’s central London portfolio. Net rental income slipped 4% to £8.4m.
Finance director Andrew Bourne said the company has now absorbed the £64m London portfolio it bought from Haslemere Estates, and is on the lookout for new opportunities.
Bourne said: “There is still more work to be done [on the portfolio]. But we are looking to acquire further properties of institutional quality which are slightly tarnished and where we can work them to improve the value.”
Last month Hemingway bought a portfolio of 10 offices and shops in Windsor for £9m and an office/retail building opposite Guildford’s railway station for £3m.
Bourne said the company was already in discussions with the tenants on schemes to upgrade the properties.
Hemingway’s earnings per share for the six months to June rose 81% to 1.9p and the board has increased the interim dividend by 9% to 0.18p per share.
