Half-year Report
Financial highlights
· Fully covered dividends declared for the six-month period of 3.20 pence per share, putting the Company on track to hit its full-year target of 6.40 pence2.
· EPRA net asset value ("NAV") per share increased by 4.30 pence or 3.3% to 133.30 pence as at 30 June 2017 (31 December 2016: 129.00 pence).
· Profit before taxation has increased by 49.9% to £80.53 million (30 June 2016: £53.72 million).
· Contracted annual rent roll increased to £108.65 million (31 December 2016: £99.66 million), including all forward funded development commitments.
· Portfolio independently valued at £2.10 billion3 as at 30 June 2017, including all forward funded development commitments.
· Total return for the period was 5.78% compared to the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT UK REITs Index total return of 4.09%.
· EPRA cost ratio continued to fall, to 13.7%, reflecting the benefits of increased scale (31 December 2016: 15.8%).
· Further diversified our sources of borrowing, with a new £90 million, long-term, fixed-rate facility with PGIM. Loan to Value ("LTV") as at 30 June 2017 was 27.0% (31 December 2016: 30.0%).
· Market capitalisation of approximately £2.0 billion as at 30 June 2017.
2 This is a target only not a profit forecast. There can be no assurances that the target will be met and it should not be taken as an indicator of the Company's expected or actual future results
3 See note 10 for reconciliation
Operational highlights
· Acquired three Big Boxes with an aggregate purchase price of £142.47 million, adding two new Customers to the portfolio.
· Three forward funded pre-let developments reached practical completion in the year to date, with a total value of £155 million.
· Average net initial yield of the property portfolio at acquisition is 5.7%, against our period end valuation of 4.9% net initial yield.
· At the period end, the portfolio comprised 38 assets, covering more than 19.6 million sq ft of logistics space.
· The portfolio was fully let, or pre-let and income producing, during the period.
· At 30 June 2017, the weighted average unexpired lease term ("WAULT") was 15.1 years, against our target of at least 12 years.
· Raised £350 million of equity in May 2017, through a substantially oversubscribed share issue.
Post Balance Sheet Highlights
· On 24 July 2017, exchanged conditional contracts to purchase a 124 acre development site at Littlebrook, Dartford for £62.5 million.
Colin Godfrey, Fund Manager of Tritax Big Box REIT plc, commented:
Heightened investment demand and asset management have helped enhance the value of our portfolio and we consider that market values may improve further. Whilst our asset valuations have benefitted from compressed yields, the tightening investment market means that patience, capital pricing discipline and stock selection will be increasingly important in underpinning our future performance. Nonetheless, investments in the logistics sector remain attractive compared to other asset classes and the Company is well positioned and well capitalised to take advantage with an identified, largely off-market, pipeline of opportunities. Looking forwards, maintaining the quality of our investment purchases will be key.
The logistics market continues to dynamically influence the UK economy. We believe that the development of the Big Box logistics market remains in its infancy, with operational efficiencies and e-commerce likely to drive occupational demand for some time to come.
Investors seeking robust values and income protection are drawn by long term lease commitments and strong market fundamentals, but also the possibility of maintaining the impressive levels of rental growth witnessed during the last couple of years. These positive attributes are expected to continue, underpinning our ambition to deliver attractive and growing, fully covered, dividends. We view the remainder of 2017 and 2018 with optimism.
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