Scottish Widows’ £200m property fund for small investors, UK Balanced Property Trust, has released its inaugural full-year results, showing an NAV increase of 4.5% to 101p.
The shares are trading at 101p, and have been around this level for the past 12 months.
This is in contrast to most quoted property companies, whose shares have been trading at a discount to net asset value.
At its March year-end, UK Balanced Property Trust’s portfolio was valued at £290.4m with an income of £22.9m, which represented a running yield of 7.9%. Pretax profit for the year stood at £5.4m, while rental income for the same period was £17.3m.
Chairman Peter Harwood said the additional £41.5m of equity the company raised from shareholders during the year – which he added was done “against difficult market conditions” – had permitted the fund to acquire a further portfolio of 21 properties with a value of £73.7m.
“As at July 2003, the company now has a portfolio of 89 properties with a wide spread by sector, regions and tenant covenant,” said Harwood.
“In particular, it should be noted that our exposure to the office sector in London and the South East represents only 11.3% of the total portfolio and we have no exposure to offices in central London.”
During the year, the fund sold four retail properties at 21.6% above book cost, giving a gain of £1.39m.
References: EGi News 04/08/03
