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Big Yellow Group PLC on Monday reported a modest increase in half-year revenue supported by higher rental income while cost savings helped drive adjusted profit upwards. The Bagshot, England-based self-storage company said pretax profit fell 49% to £74.8 million in the six months ending September from £145.8 million. The decrease in profitability is due to a lower revaluation gain of £15.3 million in the period compared to the £82.2 million gain in the prior period, which also contained the profit on the disposal of the land adjacent to the firm’s Battersea store. On an adjusted basis, pretax profit rose 8.6% to £59.6 million from £54.9 million, benefiting from operating cost savings, combined with lower net interest expense. Revenue rose 2.0% to £105.1 million from £103.0 million, driven by an increase in average achieved net rent, offset by a decline in average occupancy. Basic earnings per share slumped 49% to 38.0 pence from 74.6p. Big Yellow said it saw some softening in demand earlier in the year but this subsequently stabilised and since the period end ‘we have seen a modest improvement in occupancy performance.’ Occupancy fell to 77.5% from 80.5% or to 78.2% from 80.5% on a like-for-like basis with average achieved net rent per square foot up 4.1% to £35.78 from £34.36. Chair Nicholas Welch said: ‘These are pleasing results given the significant external and macro challenges of recent years. We have achieved positive metrics in respect of four of the five key components of earnings being average rate growth, control of operating costs, interest expense and external growth through new store openings. The fifth element is occupancy growth, which is currently our core focus, where we have seen a modest improvement in recent weeks.’ The dividend was raised 5% to 23.8 pence per share from 22.6p. Shares in Big Yellow closed up 0.6% at 1,096.00 pence each in London on Monday. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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