STENPROP, a property company listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange, with a secondary listing on the JSE’s AltX, announced strong annual results for the year ended 31 March 2015, in line with estimates.
This follows the completion of the Stenham Transaction in October 2014 which included the acquisition of 45 buildings in Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, through the issue of STENPROP shares worth €318.8 million at €1.37 per share.
STENPROP’s EPRA (European Public Real Estate Association) net asset value (NAV) of €1.65 per share represents an increase of 20.44% on the €1.37 issue price of the shares. Pro forma diluted adjusted EPRA earnings per share was 9.81 cents, equating to a 7.16% earnings yield on the issue price of €1.37.
Paul Arenson, STENPROP CEO said: “We have delivered good growth to date which is underpinned by our diversified, high quality and defensive portfolio which is internally managed to extract maximum value.
“The acquisition of the Stenham portfolio was transformational for the company and gave us the platform from which to continue driving value creation by executing several strategic transactions.”
At 31 March 2015, the portfolio was independently valued at €807 million and is split 42% in the United Kingdom, 38% in Germany and 20% in Switzerland. The gross lettable area is approximately 240,500m2 generating an annualised gross rent of €52.4 million, predominantly in the office and retail sectors which account for 51% and 34% of rental income respectively.
During the period under review, STENPROP disposed of Chiswell Street, a multi-let office block located in London for a price of £48 million, realising a net gain of £3.5 million and acquired Trafalgar Court, a modern A-grade multi-let office building in Guernsey for a purchase consideration of £61.4 million.
After completing a successful capital raise of €35 million in South Africa in March 2015, STENPROP acquired in May, a 50% interest in 25 Argyll Street, a £75 million multi-let office building located in the heart of London’s West End and notarised the acquisition of Hermann Quartier, a retail shopping centre located in the high street of Neukoelln, Berlin for €22.7 million.
STENPROP’s average loan to value ratio (LTV) at 31 March 2015 taking into account joint ventures and associates was 53.8%. The weighted average debt maturity stood at 2.2 years with an all-in annual contracted weighted average cost of debt of 3.07%.
A final dividend of 4.2 cents per share was declared for the six months following the Stenham Transaction, delivering an annualised return of 6.12% on the issue price of €1.37.
Patsy Watson, STENPROP CFO, added: “We have started the year with a healthy cash position. We will continue to focus on nurturing our diversified portfolio of quality investment properties to deliver sustainable and growing earnings, distributions and capital growth, and will seek to bolster this with strategic acquisitions. Based on current economic conditions, we expect to deliver adjusted EPRA EPS in excess of 10.30 cents per share and to make two distributions totalling 8.5 cents per share for the year ended 31 March 2016.”
During the past year, the STENPROP board was strengthened with the appointment of Paul Arenson as CEO, Patsy Watson as CFO and Neil Marais as executive director whist Michael Fienberg and Stephen Ball joined as non-executive directors in October 2014 and Mandy Yachad in December 2014.
STENPROP intends to migrate to the Main Board of the JSE in the third quarter of the current financial year.
