GLORIOUS CHART

a lovely gap up to 3 now.

aye!!!

up with ease again.

up,up and away bob...........

and again bob

its eehhhhmmmm up again !!!!

Unite provide high quality, affordable accommodation for students and key workers. With more and more students and more nurses in the NHS is this a good time to buy UTG shares?

Unite provide high quality, affordable accommodation for students and key workers. With more and more students and more nurses in the NHS is this a good time to buy UTG shares?

Well 3 years later ...I'm in! I know the property sector looks like a wasteland at the moment but students will still be flocking to universities and they'll all need places to live. And only so many of them will choose the mummy & daddy option. Very cheap IMHO at present.

Not a bad set of results given the current market conditions. And as they were up 18% on the day I guess the market agreed for once:

The UNITE Group made an adjusted loss for the year is 44.8m compared to a loss of 62.9m for 2007.

Excluding one-off costs, primarily relating to market conditions, the group's decision to scale back its development activity and actions taken to reduce the overhead base of the business, adjusted profit shows a loss of 5.7m for 2008 (2007: 3.6m loss). On an IFRS basis, reported loss of 115.9m (2007: 37.5m).

The student accommodation apecialist reported adjusted, fully diluted NAV per share for 2008 fell 21% to 325p down from 410p.

On an IFRS basis, net assets excluding minority interests fell to 320m (258p per share) from 450m (364p per share) a year earlier, principally as a result of the decline in property values.

Investment portfolio valuation fell by only 5%, compared to an industry average fall of 27%. The outperformance is predominantly attributable to rental growth and rental growth prospects.

Adjusted net debt reduced from a peak of 862m in November 2006 to 531m at 31st December 2008 as a result of UNITE's evolution to a co-investing asset manager business model.

The group reported full compliance with all borrowing covenants and a cash balance of 112m as at 31st December 2008, with 57m available for general purposes after full provision for committed development expenditure.

Operational change programme on track to deliver savings ahead of 10m per annum target across the group's operations in 2009, with additional savings also arising from a reduction in Group overheads.

Successful asset sales totalling 154m of non-core assets to third parties during 2008, well in excess of original target of 100m. In 2009 to date, further sales totalling 15m have already been unconditionally exchanged and a further 30m are in solicitor's hands.

UNITE said it remains on track to deliver against its objective set in 2007 to double net operating income from its managed student portfolio within five years.

Mark Allan, CEO, commented: 'Demand for good quality, well-located student accommodation investment assets remained robust through the majority of 2008. Transactions over the course of 2008, and already this year, provide meaningful valuation evidence across all major segments of the portfolio. Taking this evidence into account, we believe that yield expansion in student accommodation investments will continue to be less pronounced than across the broader property market, with rental growth prospects also providing an effective buffer. Nonetheless, the Group's immediate focus remains the proactive management of its balance sheet in an environment of falling property values.

'With 99% occupancy across our portfolio, annual rental growth of 9.5% achieved last year and reservations for the 2009/10 academic year already at 65%, student accommodation performance is clearly standing up well in the face of a severe recession. We plan to capitalise on this resilience to ensure that the Group is as well placed as possible for the challenging times ahead.'

Looks like a sound short now, SP well over extended and far too much debt....

Broker snap: KBC's note of caution on Unite
09 Mar, 2009 11:59


Shares in student accommodation provider Unite Group soared Monday after the company narrowed full-year losses and gave an upbeat assessment of future prospects.

However, broker KBC Peel Hunt has taken the opportunity to downgrade the stock from "buy" to "hold" as it believes "the shares will wait to see whether the business model weathers credit uncertainties."

Unite is targeting a reduction in business overheads of 9m per year "but cash flows, we estimate, minus 10m -20m per annum.," KBC said.

"The 58m equity raising and asset disposals to third parties by the USAF Fund have been useful and allowed Unite to subsequently sell a further 171m of product to USAF late in the year," KBC notes, but adds that the disposals were below market rate and although they have reduced the gearing of the holding company "the fall in valuation of Unite's wholly owned portfolio as well as its share of the Fund assets has meant gearing has increased from 106% to 131% at Dec 2008."

Despite concerns about the need to keep gearing under control, the broker believes the shares remain worth holding.

"We retain the hope that Unite, which is leveraged circa 240% at the low point, can meet its plans," the broker concludes.

A lot of confidence from Directors with three buying this week. I'm not convinced by all the doom & gloom.

Unite, Tipped by Investors Inteligence today...

For Unite Group, a breakout looms after it staged a healthy advance to the important 300p resistance (see right). As this is the fourth attempt, a break above the resistance would constitute an important buy signal.

Some very strong broker backing aswell;

UNITE Group PLC

FORECASTS
2009 2010

Date Rec Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p)

KBC Peel Hunt Ltd
22-12-09 BUY -41.61 -33.94 -36.88 -22.89 1.50

Evolution Securities Ltd
01-12-09 BUY -13.60 -10.00 -2.00 -1.30

Numis Securities Ltd
01-12-09 BUY 0.70 39.90

Noble & Company
11-11-09 None 8.90 -8.90 12.70 7.90

Some bullish TA from a US site here...

http://quote.barchart.com/texpert.asp?sym=UTG.LS&code=BSTK

Interesting fact sheets......

http://unitegroup.hemscott.com/servlet/HsPublic?context=ir.access&ir_client_id=3743&ir_option=PDF_TEARSHEET

Detailed Broker Forecasts 2009 2010

Date Rec Pre-tax EPS DPS Pre-tax EPS DPS

KBC Peel Hunt Ltd 22/12/2009 BUY -41.6 -33.9 -36.9 -22.9 1.50

Evolution Securities Ltd 01/12/2009 BUY -13.6 -10.0 -2.00 -1.30

Numis Securities Ltd 01/12/2009 BUY 0.70 39.9

Noble & Company 11/11/2009 8.90 -8.90 12.7 7.90

Student accommodation provider Unite Group (Munich: 634811 - news) was another morning soarer, up 26.5p (12%) to 250p, again based on an interim results release. In this case, the boost topped a great year for the shares, which has seen them gain around two thirds from a pre-Christmas low of 150p.

The results? A doubling of pre-tax profit to £33.5m, and a trebling of adjusted earnings per share to 9p. The interim dividend was doubled to 1p per share. The demand for university places, coupled with strong asset values, makes the outlook appear bright.