Helical has taken a “bit of financial pain” to re-focus the portfolio and create future opportunities, chief executive Gerald Kaye has said as the company reported its interim results.
The company, which has sold £315m of assets since April 2016, saw its EPRA net asset value fall 1.7% to 465p alongside an EPRA loss per share of 5.9p. It reported profit before tax of £1.2m for the six months to 30 September 2017, down from £31.1m for the same period last year.
Helical said its total property return dropped to £15.4m from last year’s £47.8m. Net rents fell to £17.9m from £24.6m in 2016, which Helical said reflected the sale of £186m of investment assets over the preceding 12 months.
Referring to the £102m disposal of its retirement portfolio, announced yesterday, Kaye said: “We made a plan a year or two ago to get out of the sector and that’s what we’ve done.
“We’ve taken a tiny bit of financial pain en route to achieve our objectives, but we reduce our gearing about 4% on our LTV and we get back £50-odd million of cash. We’re very pleased to realign our portfolio through that.”
He added that Helical’s NAV would have risen to 481p had it not sold the retirement village, reflecting the underlying strength of its portfolio, which is now focused on offices in London and Manchester alongside industrial assets.
Non-core assets make up 4% of the company’s portfolio following the retirement village sale. The company said that it would sell those assets “as opportunities arise”.
Having let 48% of One Creechurch Place, EC3, with another 22% under offer, Kaye dismissed fears over the future of the UK and London. “There’s a fog of uncertainty, and some people are focusing on that, but the hard numbers underlying that show that business is getting on with it.”
The company said that while NAV and earnings per share are down, recent developments create a “strong base” for future growth, which it reflected with an interim dividend of 2.5p per share – up 4.2% from 2016.
Updated at 9am on 15 November
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