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CLS Holdings PLC on Wednesday raised its dividend for 2021, in spite of a drop in profit due to a lower gain on the revaluation of investment properties and disposals.
The UK, Germany and France-focused property investor posted a pretax profit of £91.5 million, down 5.2% from £96.5 million in 2020, due to a net revaluation movement on investment property of £28.5 million, down from £31.5 million.
Contracted rents dipped 0.3% to £107.6 million last year from £107.9 million in 2020, while net rental income also dipped to £108.0 million from £109.8 million, due to redevelopment and leasing expiries.
CLS's net asset value per share as at December 31 increased 4.7% to 326.6 pence from 311.9p a year before, as the company's portfolio value rose 6.9% to £2.33 billion from £2.18 billion, driven by strong letting activity and yield tightening.
CLS declared a final dividend of 5.35 pence per share, bringing the total payout to 7.70p, up 2.0% from 7.55p.
‘CLS has delivered a healthy and robust set of results for 2021 with net assets up from earnings and valuation gains in all of our three countries. We faced headwinds from the strengthening of sterling and the impact of pandemic restrictions which temporarily reduced occupancy but our operational performance, especially in the second half of the year, was excellent with collection and leasing activities at pre-pandemic levels,’ said Chief Executive Officer Fredrik Widlund.
Shares in CLS were 7.4% higher at 207.00 pence on Wednesday in London.
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