Chesterfield Properties has reported a 7% rise in pre-tax profits to £8.448m for the year ending December 31, 1997.
Its net asset value per share has also risen by 16% from 528p to 612p. However, Chesterfield chairman Roger Wingate said that the results are not strictly comparable with the previous year because of significant changes in the company over the last 12 months.
The UK property portfolio is now valued at £357m – compared with £396m at December 31, 1996. Gearing has been reduced from 163% a year ago to 124% now with more than half the debt maturing in over five years compared to only 23% last year.
Last year, Chestefield cut the value of its Hialeah shopping centre in Florida, USA, by another US$4m (£2.48m) to US$28m (£17.39m) and Wingate has now announced that it will be put up for sale. The shopping mall at Hanford, California, where Chesterfield is a limited partner, will also be put on the market.
Wingate also confirmed that the group is planning to dispose of its entertainment interests. Last year, the company reduced its investment in a Canadian TV and film company.
In the first full review of the company’s activities since Robert Maxted was appointed Chief Executive at the end of 1996, Wingate said it had made satisfactory progress in asset management. “Our property team has refocused its activities from day-to-day management, which has now been undertaken by external managing agents, to the maximisation of property values over the medium term.”
Chesterfield is focusing its property strategy on the retail sector and central London. The company spent some £85m in 1997, mainly on retail property. Purchases included the 41,805 sq m (450,000 sq ft) Forge Shopping Centre, east of Glasgow, which it bought jointly with Teachers Annuity & Insurance Association for £67.5m.
In 1997, Chesterfield let some 26,941 sq m (290,000 sq ft) of floorspace – giving an annual rent roll of £5.22m. The most significant deal was the letting of 8,779 sq m (94,500 sq ft) to BHP Petroleum at No.1 Neathouse Place (Winner of this year’s BCO Urban Workplace Building of the Year Award) in London’s Victoria district.
EGi 20/05/98
