FINANCE: Panther Securities has announced a pretax profit of £8.1m – up from a £4.6m loss in 2012 – in its 2013 full-year results.
Chairman and major shareholder Andrew Perloff said the profit increase was heavily influenced by a substantial reduction of £6m in the group’s swaps liability.
However, he added, leaving aside the swaps benefit, the underlying trend is still showing an improvement in returns from the investment portfolio.
The property investment company said its NAV had risen from 367p to 395p over the 12-month period.
Rental income across the group rose from £10.7m to £12.5m, and the value of the group’s property portfolio increased by £742,000, compared with a £4,967,000 drop the previous year.
The group had a quieter year, with investment activity totalling £5.3m of acquisitions, compared with £11.4m in 2012.
Panther announced a final dividend payment of 9p per share, with a previous dividend of 3p per share paid in November 2013, maintaining the dividend for the year at 12p.
Perloff said: “There is definitely a feeling of optimism rippling through the property market.
“This is possibly due to the coalition flooding the residential market with improved availability of finance.
“This in turn produces more residential sales and a gradual increase in residential developments with part of this flow of money transferring into the commercial market.
“There is more competition from many new funds prepared to invest in non-prime commercial property and finally there appears greater tenant activity despite the heavy costs of business rates.
“The rates burden just goes upwards and in many cases the amount payable is more than the rent payable and unfortunately owners are compelled to adjust their rental expectations to take account of market realities.
“I am hopeful that with the property market’s revival, a number of our property holdings that have been zombified will now come back to life and start to produce more meaningful returns over the next few years as all property markets improve.”
bridget.o’connell@estatesgazette.com
