Metric Property Investments was hailed as being “on its way to becoming the Derwent London of retail” after its second set of annual results this week.
Andrew Jones’ specialist REIT delivered a 6% rise in net asset value to 107p a share as the value of the group’s 21-strong portfolio grew 6.6% to £238m. Like-for-like rental growth was 3.1% against 1.6% at the same time last year.
The group’s EPRA pretax profit jumped from £1.1m in 2011 to £6.6m in March this year, and earning per share rose from 0.5p to 3.5p.
Despite a difficult retail market, Metric’s portfolio is 97.5% let, with 11.8 years average unexpired lease terms.
Only 6% of income is due to expire over the next five years, as opposed to the wider market at 18% for out-of-town and 58% for shopping centre and high street leases.
Metric has now lined up seven developments, which JP Morgan Cazenove analyst Harm Meijer (pictured) said would add “some cream to the cake” in terms of value creation, likening the firm to central London specialist Derwent London.
Metric’s loan-to-value is 13%, with a weighted average cost of debt of 3.9% A final dividend of 2.3p is to be paid on 23 July 2012, bringing the full-year dividend to 3.3p.
