Big Yellow FY hit by Brexit worries, lower revaluation gains

Lower revaluation gains and Brexit worries led to a 5% fall in full year pre-tax profits at self-storage provider Big Yellow.

Pre-tax profits came in at £127m from £134.1m a year earlier. Revenue rose to to £125.4m from £116.7m while like-for-like revenue grew 7%.

The total dividend was increased 8% to 33.2p a share.

After the seasonally weaker third quarter Big Yellow said the delay in Britain's departure date from the EU had led to a "more muted" final three months.

The revaluation gain of £58.9m compared with £71.6m a year earlier. Closing occupancy rose 1.9 percentage points to 82.4% from 80.5%.

"Although activity levels in the final quarter were impacted by consumer uncertainty in the build-up to the UK's original proposed exit date from the EU, we are pleased to have delivered further improvements in rate and occupancy over the year as a whole," said chief executive Nicholas Vetch.

"Looking ahead, we remain focused on our core objective of increasing occupancy to 90 per cent, which in turn should drive traction on pricing and further rate growth."

"We expect to see occupancy growth over our seasonally stronger summer trading period, providing there are no significant external shocks, and we should peak at over 85%. The key risk to our business is supply, and this remains constrained, particularly in London and the South East, with four store openings in the year offset by three store closures."