Urban Logistics is planning to bolster its portfolio after agreeing a new £151m credit facility.
Chairman Nigel Rich said that the new five-year facility with Barclays, Santander and Lloyds would help the business target opportunities predominantly in the Midlands and the North.
“The long-term economic impact of Covid-19 on the UK economy will take time to emerge. However, it will change the way business is conducted, with many more people working from home and doing their shopping on the internet, a trend which started well before the virus. Against this backdrop, the fundamentals of the urban logistics market remain attractive,” he said in the company’s latest full-year results.
“With our focus on urban logistics, and most of our warehouses situated near to town and city centres, our tenants are mostly involved in the supply chain for getting UK domestic goods to end users. We believe that urban logistics can only become more important in a post Covid-19 world.”
Urban Logistics recorded a 16.7% uplift in revenue to £12.6m due to a 21% increase in rental income, and reported that all of its rental income at March quarter day was paid in full.
However, the firm also posted a 49.7% fall in pretax profit to £9.4m. It attributed this fall to “a lower increase in fair value in 2020” for its portfolio.
The value of the company’s portfolio was up by 11% to £207m at the end of March, an uplift of £5.7m, compared to £13.4m in 2019. The business said this increase in value was mainly due to asset management initiatives as capitalisation rates had barely moved over the course of the year.
Urban Logistics also reported a 115% increase in its net asset value to £259m, while EPRA NAV per share nudged down to 137.90p
At the end of the financial year Urban Logistics had £57m of cash from its equity raise in March.
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