As the parent company of the Sheffield-based Henry Boot Group of Companies, Henry Boot PLC is one of the leading property and construction organisations in the country. Its successful group operations encompass property (Henry Boot Developments Limited), land (Hallam Land Management Limited), construction (Henry Boot Construction Limited) and plant (Banner Plant Limited).

The origins of the company go back over 125 years when local farmer's son, Henry Boot, started his one-man construction business in 1886 to carry out modest jobbing work in the Sheffield and surrounding area. He rapidly expanded into large-scale public works and housing projects throughout the country and, with his son Charles, built the foundations of our company's proud and colourful history


http://www.henryboot.co.uk/

IC - Accordingly analysts at Numis Securities are upgrading their forecasts for the third time in a year to pre tax profit of £28.2m and EPS of 15.3p. Trading at the start of the year shows a continuing strong trend, with seven land sales progressing to a successful conclusion. Significantly, the groups construction and jointly-owned housebuilding business have also performed well.

Simon T of IC - Target price

As I have noted earlier, the company’s balance sheet is not only conservatively geared, but also understates the true worth of the component parts of the business. Factor in the profits embedded in the development pipeline, mark investment properties and land holding to market value, and analysts at Investec calculate a sum-of-the-parts value of 277p per share. W.H. Ireland are more aggressive and have a fair value target price of 317p.

They may prove right in their assumptions, but I am going to be less aggressive in the near-term and believe that a return to the 249p highs of last year is not just a realistic short-term target, but a highly probably one too in light of next month’s eye-catching financial results and yet more positive news flow on trading. A move through last month's high of 214p would be strong confirmation that the multi-month consolidation period is over and a return to the 249p highs from early last year is highly likely. But I would be acting ahead of that that price move. So offering 20 per cent share price upside, I rate Henry Boot’s shares a strong short-term buy now on a bid-offer spread of 202p to 205.5p. The timeframe for this trade is three months.

6 Mar Investec 277.00 Buy

ST of IC -Foundation for bumper profits from Granite city

Investors are warming to Henry Boot

(BHY: 232p), the 129-year-old Sheffield based construction and property company, and with good reason after Aberdeen City Council approved the master plan and business case for the new Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC), a development that will be more than twice the size of the existing exhibition centre.

Henry Boot had the site, on which the scheme will be built, under contract and will act as development partner, alongside Aberdeen City Council, to deliver this project. Construction work is set to start by the middle of next year and is due to complete in late 2018. It is estimated that the gross development value of the first phase, including the 750,000 sq ft exhibition and conference centre, two hotels and an anaerobic digestion green energy centre, will exceed £300m. Analysts at brokerage Investec estimate that Henry Boot will make a development profit of £30m on the first phase alone, phased in from the 2016 fiscal year to 2019. The master plan envisages a further 400,000 sq ft of business park accommodation and the redevelopment of the existing conference centre site.

Investec now expects Henry Boot to lift its gross trading profit from £41m in 2014 to £44m in 2015, rising again to £46m in 2016. On this basis, the shares are still only trading on 12.5 times 2016 EPS estimates of 18.5p and offer a near-3 per cent forward dividend yield, too. The value on offer aside, the AECC deal shows how the company is releasing value from its substantial land bank and is using commercial partners to front the development costs to de-risk the investment. In fact, Henry Boot is making no capital investment in the AECC at all.

So having advised buying the shares at 202p (‘A bootiful investment’, 19 February 2015), I strongly feel there is scope for them to rise to my 249p target price and beyond. Analyst Alison Watson at Investec has a 277p target price, and Nick Spoliar at WH Ireland has a 317p target price. Buy.

Finals Thurs 26 March

Final Results
RNS
RNS Number : 4717I
Boot(Henry) PLC
26 March 2015



HENRY BOOT PLC



UNAUDITED PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2014


Henry Boot PLC ('Henry Boot', 'the Company' or 'the Group') (Ticker: BHY: Main market premium listing: FTSE: construction & materials), a company engaged in land development, property investment and development, and construction, announces its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2014.


2014 KEY FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
· Profit before tax increased 54% to £28.3m (2013: £18.4m)

· Earnings per share increased 88% to 16.2p (2013: 8.6p)

· Proposed final dividend of 3.50p (2013: 3.15p), giving a total for the year of 5.60p (2013: 5.10p), a 9.8% increase

· 74% total shareholder return over the last three years

· Net asset value per share of 152p (2013: 148p)

· Gearing reduced to 18% (2013: 19%), though net debt increased slightly to £36.4m (2013: £36.1m)

· Strategic land acreage now 9,985 acres (2013: 9,723 acres)



Commenting on the results, Chairman John Brown said:

"I am delighted to report another year of strong results for our Group. It is also pleasing to report that all of the businesses within the Group performed well in their market segment."

"Henry Boot enters 2015 in great shape, with a portfolio of high quality opportunities to deliver growing shareholder returns. The 2015 financial year has started positively."

"In the shorter term, we remain confident that prevailing economic and market conditions will allow us to deliver growing returns through 2015. In the longer term we continue to identify and acquire numerous valuable opportunities to enable us to deliver our strategic goal, well into the future."

For further information, please contact

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////



26 Mar WH Ireland... 317.50 Buy
26 Mar Investec 282.00 Buy

ST of IC today - There are selective holdings I am keen on irrespective of who is running the country in a few weeks time, one of which is Henry Boot

(BHY: 225p) (‘A six-shooter of small cap buys’, 10 March 2015). The 129-year-old Sheffield based construction and property company is likely to be a beneficiary no matter which political party is in power. Henry Boot owns a significant number of oven ready sites which undoubtedly will prove attractive to major housebuilders as I pointed out when I initiated coverage, especially if they are forced through political intervention to ramp out new build output (‘A bootiful investment’, 19 February 2015).

21 May Investec 282.00 Buy

AGM Trading Update
RNS
RNS Number : 8241N
Boot(Henry) PLC
21 May 2015



Henry Boot PLC

('the Company' or 'the Group')



AGM Trading Update





Henry Boot PLC will hold its Annual General Meeting at 12.30 p.m. today at which the Chairman will make the following statement regarding current trading and the outlook for the current financial year.



The statement covers the period from 1 January 2015 to date and supplements the update given with the 2014 results on 26 March 2015.





Trading and outlook



Trading since the beginning of 2015 has, once again, been encouraging across all the Group's businesses. The three business segments, land, commercial development and construction, are all trading well. A short term lack of decision making around the Election, especially within the public sector, meant that, as expected, concluding transactions in the last couple of months have been a little slower. However, the strengthened position of the governing party leads us to expect a quick return to normalised activity levels. We therefore remain confident of meeting the Board's expectations for the full year.





KEY EVENTS IN THE PERIOD



LAND DEVELOPMENT



Activity levels continue to be high within Hallam Land. We are promoting a land portfolio of over 140 sites amounting to over 10,000 acres.



During the period:



·
We concluded two land sales for over 500 units and received a small uplift from a previous disposal, all at price levels we were anticipating.



·
We are in discussion to sell a further 13 sites for over 1,800 consented units, some of which will complete in 2015, others will conclude in 2016.



·
In total, and including the sales in progress above, we have 47 sites with over 12,000 units holding either planning permission or "minded to grant" consent subject to agreeing a S106 with the local authority in question.



·
We have a further 25 sites for over 10,000 units which are within the planning process but are, as yet, undetermined or are within the appeals system.




PROPERTY INVESTMENT AND DEVELOPMENT



·
At Markham Vale, our 200 acre business park being developed in partnership with Derbyshire County Council, pre-let agreements have been exchanged with Great Bear Distribution Ltd to take a new 480,000 sq ft distribution warehouse. This scheme is expected to be completed by mid-2016 and terms for the forward funded sale of the development are expected to be finalised shortly. This letting is in addition to 190,000 sq ft of pre-let industrial development that is already expected to complete in 2015.



·
The development of a new exhibition and conference centre for Aberdeen City Council took a significant step forward in March 2015 when the Council gave unanimous approval to complete legal agreements. This scheme will include three hotels, an energy centre as well as a 400,000 sq ft conference and exhibition centre. Planning applications are expected to be submitted by mid-year and construction is targeted to commence in early 2016.



·
A ten year development agreement was exchanged with the Crown Estate and Luton Borough Council for the development of Butterfields Business Park, a 45 acre employment site in Luton, which already has planning permission and is partially serviced.



·
The redevelopment of Terry's Chocolate Factory in York also made significant progress with submission of detailed planning and listed building consent applications and the exchange of contracts for the conversion of the main listed factory building to provide over 150 luxury apartments. Planning permission is expected to be secured mid-year, enabling work to commence by late 2015 with the first apartments being completed in the first half of 2016.



·
The 22,000 sq ft office development, pre-let to Atkins Ltd, on Westlakes Science Park in Cumbria will be completed imminently, on programme and to budget, terms for the sale of the investment are expected to be agreed shortly.



·
Our jointly owned house builder, Stonebridge, is on course to grow further this year with completed sales ahead of last year. We achieved planning permission on a 114 unit development in Sheffield and are hopeful of gaining consent for a further 109 units in Leeds mid-2015. We are actively acquiring further sites, predominantly in the north Leeds area, to provide for the anticipated future growth in unit sales.




CONSTRUCTION DIVISION



·
Our Construction business continues to undertake projects across a wide range of sectors including industrial, residential housing, custodial, health, commercial, education, leisure, renewable energy and civil engineering. We have made a strong start to the year and expect to achieve targeted activity in 2015 and are already building the 2016 order book. Encouragingly, and contrary to press comments regarding parts of the UK construction market, we are seeing improvements in both construction activity and the size of opportunities coming to market. As a consequence, we hope for a small improvement in pricing levels associated with the growing workload in all our operating sectors.



·
Our plant business is trading well and activity is ahead of the equivalent period last year. At this stage, we are seeing good demand for all parts of the hire fleet from a generally improving construction industry in the north of England.



·
Road Link (A69) Limited, our PFI contract, continues to trade in line with previous years and management expectations.

ST of IC today - Trading on 13 times forward earnings, and offering a prospective dividend yield of 2.5 per cent, I continue to rate the shares a buy on a bid-offer spread of 230p to 235p. In fact, I have raised my target price to 260p to reflect the more stable housing market conditions resulting from the election of a Conservative administration.

2015 Half yearly results

28 Aug Investec 292.00 Buy

ST of IC - Target price

So having first recommended buying Henry Boot’s shares at 202p (‘A bootiful investment’, 19 February 2015), I continue to feel there is scope for the price to rise to at least my 260p target price (‘A trio of small cap buys’, 14 July 2015) and perhaps even higher. Analyst Alison Watson at Investec has a raised target price of 292p, and Nick Spoliar at WH Ireland has a 317.5p target price.

Trading Update
RNS
RNS Number : 9161L
Boot(Henry) PLC
15 January 2016



HENRY BOOT PLC

('the Group')



Trading Update





The Board of Henry Boot PLC issues the following pre-close trading update for the year ended 31 December 2015 ahead of its preliminary results which will be announced on Thursday 24 March 2016.



December was, as expected, very busy from a deal completion perspective; we sold four strategic land sites and four completed development properties with the result that underlying trading profits finished the year ahead of market expectations. In addition, we have received draft year end property valuation data and have made provisions against certain investment sites where the anticipated schemes will not now come forward as originally envisaged.



Taking account of the above solid trading performance and draft valuation data, the Board now expects that profit before tax and earnings per share for the year ended 31 December 2015 will be slightly ahead of market expectations.



We are now on site with the residential redevelopment of the former Chocolate Factory in York and expect to begin selling units from this scheme imminently, with show homes opening in March 2016. In addition, the fully pre-let and pre-sold 480,000 sq ft distribution unit at Markham Vale commenced in November 2015 for completion late in 2016.



We recently obtained detailed planning permission for our major development in Aberdeen which includes a conference centre, three hotels, an anaerobic digestion plant and an energy centre. This, first-phase scheme, has a gross development value in the region of £300m and once financing and contractor discussions are concluded, we hope to start building out midway through 2016.



With the scale of commercial development in progress and the discussions already taking place with house builders for strategic land sites, we start 2016 in an excellent position to achieve another year of progress as we strive to deliver growth in long-term shareholder value.



We look forward to updating shareholders further at the time of our annual results.

15 Jan Investec 292.00 Buy

ST of IC today - In the circumstances, and ahead of next month's full-year results, I feel very comfortable re-iterating my buy advice and my target price of 260p with Henry Boot's shares trading on a bid-offer spread of 220p to 222p. Analyst Alison Watson at Investec maintains a target price of 292p, and Nick Spoliar at WH Ireland has a target price of 317p. Buy.

Thursday's agenda: Henry Boot set to kick profits higher

15:15 23 Mar 2016

Housebuilder set to report annual profits slightly above expectations



Numis expects steady growth in Boot's construction division as industry conditions improve




Henry Boot plc (LON:BHY) is tipped to turn in profits slightly above expectations when the housebuilder reports annual results on Thursday.

Analysts expect the builder and property developer to report "robust growth" in its land development arm, driven by volume rather than price inflation.

"Looking forward, we do not expect a significant change to this trend, with pricing relatively flat but continued growth in demand for land as housebuilding activity increases," Numis Securities analysts said.

Numis expects a stronger second half for the company's property division as it completed a number of development properties, although it would be offset by write-downs on slower-moving investment sites.

"Nonetheless, we believe this division will underpin the group's earnings growth over the medium term," the broker's Christen Hjorth said.

"Finally, we expect a continuation of steady growth in the construction division as industry conditions improve."

Numis expects pre-tax profit of £29.9mln against £28.3mln a year ago.

Final Results

RNS


RNS Number : 0990T

Boot(Henry) PLC

24 March 2016




HENRY BOOT PLC

UNAUDITED PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2015

Henry Boot PLC ('Henry Boot', 'the Company' or 'the Group') (Ticker: BHY: Main market premium listing: FTSE: construction & materials), a company engaged in land development, property investment and development, and construction, announces its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2015.

2015 KEY FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

· Profit before tax increased 14% to £32.4m (2014: £28.3m)

· Earnings per share increased 8% to 17.5p (2014: 16.2p)

· Proposed final dividend of 3.80p (2014: 3.50p), giving a total for the year of 6.10p (2014: 5.60p), a 9% increase

· Net asset value per share increased 10% to 168p (2014: 152p)

· Conservative gearing at 18% (2014: 18%), net debt £38.9m (2014: £36.4m)

· Strategic land acreage now 11,061 acres (2014: 9,985 acres)

· 78% total shareholder return over the last three years

Commenting on the results, Chairman Jamie Boot said:

"I am delighted to report a 14% increase in profit before tax to £32.4m for the year ended 31 December 2015. Once again, all our business segments performed well within a solid UK economy.

"I have taken over as Chairman with the business in excellent shape and with our people energised to deliver significant growth in activity. I look forward to reporting on progress through 2016 and beyond."

24 Mar Numis 265.00 Add

AGM Trading Update

RNS


RNS Number : 3208Z

Boot(Henry) PLC

26 May 2016




HENRY BOOT PLC

('the Company' or 'the Group')



AGM TRADING UPDATE





Henry Boot PLC will hold its Annual General Meeting at 12.30 p.m. today at which the Chairman will make the following statement regarding current trading and the outlook for the current financial year.



The statement covers the period from 1 January 2016 to date and supplements the update given with the 2015 results on 24 March 2016.





Trading and outlook



Trading since the beginning of 2016 has, once again, been encouraging; the Group's three business segments, land development, property investment and development and construction, are all trading well. However, we may see some transactional uncertainty around the EU referendum. We do not anticipate this will last for long or have a detrimental effect on the year as a whole, and therefore we remain confident that trading will meet the Board's expectations for the full year.



KEY EVENTS IN THE PERIOD



LAND DEVELOPMENT



Since the start of 2016 activity levels have been, and continue to be, strong.




·

We have already concluded four land sales totalling over 450 units and have unconditionally exchanged on two further sites, with completion expected later in the year. In addition, we are in detailed sale discussions on ten other schemes; the majority of which should also complete before the year end.




·

We have seen further success in our planning activities since December 2015, having obtained planning permission on five sites, for over 3,400 units. We now have 52 sites for sale with over 15,000 units and an additional 29 sites, over 13,000 units, either at appeal or as yet undetermined planning applications.




·

Our land promotion portfolio now totals over 150 sites and 11,200 acres. Furthermore, we have board approval for some 30 new sites, for in excess of 2,000 acres, to replenish the portfolio for the future.




·

House builders continue to report good progress with stable levels of demand for new homes and are replenishing their land banks as sales are made. We look forward to reporting further activity as sales complete throughout the rest of the year.




PROPERTY INVESTMENT AND DEVELOPMENT




·

At Markham Vale, our 200 acre business park being developed in partnership with Derbyshire County Council, we are on track to develop over one million sq ft of distribution space by the end of the year. This follows the exchange of contracts for a 225,000 sq ft bespoke unit and agreement of terms for a further 480,000 sq ft of warehousing, in addition to the 480,000 sq ft of space already pre-let to Great Bear Distribution Limited. These three schemes, which are forward funded or pre-sold, are all expected to complete in late 2016 or early 2017.




·

The 850,000 sq ft exhibition and conference centre in Aberdeen continues to move forward following the final approval of the scheme by the City Council. We are now working on the final terms with our construction partner and our funder and hope to be on site, as planned, in the second half of 2016.




·

Contracts were exchanged early in the year with Atkins Limited on a site in Epsom, Surrey, to develop 110,000 sq ft of high specification offices. With detailed planning permission already secured, initial enabling works will start this year and the development, which is forward funded, is expected to be completed towards the end of 2017.




·

In Manchester city centre, contracts have been exchanged with U.S. Property Fund, Ares, to forward fund a 570 unit private rented apartment development on a 2.5 acre site which we hold under contract. A detailed planning application for the scheme was recently submitted; once secured, we expect to commence this £200m development in the first half of 2017.




·

At the former Terry's chocolate factory in York, our development opened for apartment sales in April 2016. We already have reservations on over 40 luxury apartments at sales values above those originally envisaged. The first sales completions are expected in the second half of 2016 and current demand indicates that we should see further sales throughout this year and 2017.




·

Elsewhere, a number of other smaller projects have commenced. These include retail warehouse developments in Livingston and Belper, a car dealership site on the edge of Chesterfield and an office refurbishment and extension in Uxbridge.




·

Our jointly owned house builder, Stonebridge, started development on the 109 unit site in Leeds late in 2015 and recently began building out the 114 unit site in Stocksbridge. Sales have commenced on both sites with good initial interest. We expect these two sites to be the main areas of growth for Stonebridge supported by a growing site portfolio.






CONSTRUCTION DIVISION




·

Our Construction business continues to undertake projects across a wide range of sectors including industrial, residential housing, custodial, health, commercial, education, leisure, renewable energy and civil engineering. We have made a strong start to the year and expect to achieve targeted activity in 2016 and are already building the 2017 order book. Encouragingly, and contrary to certain press comment regarding parts of the UK construction market, we are seeing improvements in both construction activity and the size of opportunities coming to the market. As a consequence, we anticipate a small improvement in pricing levels associated with the growing workload in all our operating sectors.




·

Our plant business is trading well and activity is ahead of the equivalent period last year. Encouragingly, we are currently seeing good demand for all parts of the hire fleet from a generally busy construction industry in the North of England.




·

Road Link (A69) Limited, our PFI contract, continues to trade in line with previous years and management expectations.