The EU referendum vote will have no effect on long-term development, St Modwen’s chief executive has said following the company’s half-year results.
Bill Oliver said the firm’s “long-term view” would continue. St Modwen posted a 17.7% rise in revenue in the first half of 2016, although share prices have fallen by 35% since the Brexit vote.
He said: “We take a long-term view. Property is a depreciating asset and has to be renewed. People need more houses. People need to recycle brownfield land. And that’s what we do.”
With net asset value up by 7% to £939.4m and development profit up by 40% to £34.9m, Oliver said the company had a long-term potential on its 6,000-acre landbank.
Pretax profit fell by 85% to £30m as New Covent Garden Market, SW8, was revalued at £21m less than last year’s value.
Boosted by a valuation gain of £128m at New Covent Garden Market, St Modwen added £176.8m to its profit through property revaluation in Q1 2015, whereas it recorded a £5.4m loss through revaluations over the same period this year.
Oliver added that plans for the development of Nine Elms, including New Covent Garden Market, were currently on track.
Oliver said: “We’re quite some time off from anyone actually developing the site. We’re just going to continue to explore options. Before Brexit, it would have been the case that we would have been announcing plans to take the residential land to market, but now in this period of uncertainty, we have a brief pause as we see how things pan out before we take a decision on what’s right for that site.”
