Search Share Prices
U&I turns in record financial performance
(WebFG News) - U&I turned in a record financial performance from its most recent trading year on Thursday as it announced a "significant" supplemental dividend as part of its positive outlook.
The property regeneration specialist recorded £68.3m of development and trading gains, marking a 95% year-on-year increase at the top end of its guidance, as significant progress on repositioning investment portfolio achieved a total return of 10.1% after the firm disposed of £53.2m worth of assets at or above book value.
U&I also created £6.5m of value through asset management initiatives and earned £2.1m as a result of net management fees.
The London-based firm posted a 106% increase in its dividend to 17.9p as a result of its strong cash flows, painting a positive picture for future growth and shareholder returns.
As part of its £7bn gross development value pipeline over the next ten years, U&I affirmed its focus on continuing to target 12% post-tax total returns per year, including £125-150m of development and trading gains to the end of the 2021 financial year.
Matthew Weiner, U&I's chief executive, said, "These results are an endorsement of the ambition that we set ourselves when we established U+I: to create a strong business with a clear focus on regeneration and a commitment to delivering sustainable value for shareholders and the communities in which we operate."
"Financially, this is expressed in our ambition to consistently deliver total returns of 12% post-tax and we are pleased to have met this target this financial year. This strong performance has enabled us to declare a supplemental dividend of 12.0p per share, taking our total dividend to 17.9p per share, a 106% increase on the prior year," he added.
Separately, Liberum initiated coverage on U&I with a 'buy' rating on Thursday, with its analysts highlighting significant long-term share price upside as the firm's current schemes progressed, and new ones were added, while its valuation discount continued to narrow.
Liberum saw a 50% upside to the specialist regeneration developer and investor's net asset value from developments, of which the majority will be returned to shareholders, as the combination of visible attractive returns and an "unjustified valuation discount" enhanced U&I's share price upside.
As of 1200 BST, shares had climbed 4.89% to 212.40p.