Archived article
Please note that tax, investment, pension and ISA rules can change and the information and any views contained in this article may now be inaccurate.
Property investor and developer Segro posted a 28% fall in first-half profit, owing to lower gains on property revaluations, though adjusted earnings were boosted by increased rental revenue.
Pre-tax profit for the six months through June fell to £410.8m, down from £570.9m.
Adjusted profit rose 19% to £131.8m, as like-for-like net rental income rose 3.7%, including including 4.3% growth in the UK and 2.5% growth in Continental Europe.
Segro declared an interim dividend of 6.30p per share, up 14% on-year.
'Momentum has continued throughout our business in the first half of 2019 and we are on track for another strong year,' chief executive David Sleath said.
'Our portfolio of high quality and well-located warehouse assets is performing well, as evidenced by strong rental growth and the low vacancy rate.'
'Our development programme continues apace, capitalising on the ongoing, positive occupier demand across our markets.'
'As anticipated, the structural trends of e-commerce and urbanisation that have been driving performance in our UK business for some time are now increasingly evident in our Continental European markets.'
'Looking ahead, we expect the development programme to generate further significant and profitable new rental income over coming years.'
'This addition to the top-line, combined with the compounding effect of rental growth through our asset management of the existing portfolio, should enable us to drive both sustainable earnings and further dividend growth.'
