(Alliance News) - Big Yellow Group PLC on Tuesday posted a significant fall in its profits for the first half of financial 2020 but said momentum experienced from June relative to last year has continued.
Shares in the self-storage company were trading 1.0% higher at 1,153.00 pence each on Tuesday morning in London.
For the six months ended September 30, Big Yellow posted pretax profit of GBP59.9 million, down 37% from GBP95.8 million recorded the year prior. This was as revenue rose 2.3% to GBP65.8 million from GBP64.3 million.
The Bagshot, England-based company blamed the decline in profit on a lower revaluation surplus during the period. After adjusting for the gain on the revaluation of investment properties, the group made an adjusted pretax profit of GBP36.5 million, up 3.4% from GBP35.3 million the year prior.
"The revaluation surplus for the open stores in the period was GBP25.4 million, driven by cash flow improvements, with cap rates unchanged. There is a revaluation deficit of GBP1.8 million on the investment property under construction, due to an increase in projected development costs on a couple of schemes," it stated.
Big Yellow declared an interim dividend of 17.0p, down from 17.1p paid last year.
Looking ahead, Executive Chair Nicholas Vetch said: "The current outlook for both the economy and the pandemic remain uncertain. The momentum we have seen from June relative to last year is continuing, however our visibility of future demand is limited to two to four weeks. Our stores are approaching 90% occupancy, which gives us pricing power. Further challenges will no doubt present themselves, but Big Yellow is relatively well placed to meet them."
Cash held as at September-end was GBP6.4 million, up from GBP5.5 million on September 30, 2019.
By Ife Taiwo; ifetaiwo@alliancenews.com
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Big Yellow (BYG)