Hansteen doubles annual pre-tax profit, lifts dividend

Strong UK sales saw real estate investment trust Hansteen Holdings double its pre-tax profit in 2014.

The FTSE 250 group said annual pre-tax profit, boosted by gains on property sales, increased 100.9% to £131.2m, while its normalised income profit rose 22.3% to £48.2m.

Hansteen said it had made £315.3m sales last year, and it bought £267.7m worth of properties at an average yield of 9.8% and with a vacancy of 16.0%.

“We have sold a significant amount of property into a very buoyant UK investment market which has released capital and allowed Hansteen to make some noteworthy acquisitions,” said group chairman James Hambro.

“These acquisitions fit our business model perfectly having a high initial yield and a material vacant element."

The property valuation across the group’s portfolio rose 9.2% year-on-year to £135.8m, while like-for-like occupancy across the portfolio rose by 195,000 square metres, representing 29.2% of the vacancy it had at the start of the year.

"Risk adjusted returns from industrial property look high relative to many other investments and there is a significant weight of capital looking to invest," joint chief executives Ian Watson and Morgan Jones said.

The company said it will pay a full-year dividend of 5.0p, up from 4.16% from the previous year, and will also pay a special dividend of 3.0p.

Hansteen shares were down 1.57% to 114.77p at 08:26 on Monday.