TIDMTOWN
RNS Number : 7406F
Town Centre Securities PLC
17 July 2019
17 July 2019
Town Centre Securities PLC
('The Company' or 'TCS')
Year-end Trading Update & Notice of Results
Town Centre Securities PLC, the Leeds, Manchester, Scotland and
London property investor and car park operator, today announces an
update for its financial year ended 30 June 2019 and notice of its
final results.
Overview
The Board is pleased to report that TCS ended its year in line
with its expectations. The Company has continued to deliver on the
strategy of repositioning its portfolio, investing in its estate,
and delivering and improving its development pipeline. TCS
continues to produce consistent operational results despite the
challenging market, and remains focused on delivering improving
long-term returns.
Trading
As at the end of June 2019, our key operational metrics were as
follows:
-- Like-for-like (LFL) passing rent up 2.6% (2017: 4.1%), driven by new lettings at Milngavie
-- Overall occupancy level 96% (June 2018: 95%)
-- Strong credit control ensured at least 94% of rent paid within 4 days of the due date
-- CitiPark continues to grow its revenues and profits
Continued repositioning of the portfolio
TCS has made further important improvements to its property
portfolio in the past 12 months. This activity continues to deliver
on the strategy of recycling ex-growth assets and reducing the
proportion of Retail assets in the portfolio. The key highlights
being:
-- Sale of Rochdale Retail Park for GBP13.2m in January 2019
-- Acquisition of The Cube in Leeds, for GBP12m in October 2018
-- Achieved practical completion of Manchester Private Rented Scheme ('PRS') in June 2019
The continued strong performance of our CitiPark car parking
division further diversifies and supports the Company's
performance.
Active asset management
Actively managing our assets in order to drive value creation
has always been a fundamental objective for TCS. In the past year
we have undertaken numerous schemes within our portfolio aimed at
driving long term income growth. These include:
-- Conversion of the retail unit in Milngavie vacated by
Homebase, creating two units let to Aldi and Home Bargains, driving
an 8% increase in rent and a net 23% increase in value.
-- The Works replaced Mothercare in our London retail unit
following the latter's CVA; on completion of the conversion of the
upper floors to residential, we expect rental levels to be 24%
above the pre-CVA level and value also to increase.
-- Investing in the first rapid charger for electric vehicles in
Leeds at the Merrion Centre Car Park, and introducing a new App to
enable remote booking and payment for parking.
Retail CVAs and administrations have become widespread and
highly publicised in recent times. The relative strength and focus
of TCS's retail portfolio, with no exposure and reliance upon the
big high street names, has helped mitigate the impact to a
relatively modest level.
In the past year the Company experienced eight tenants either
going into administration or launching a CVA. Of those eight units,
three have been re-let to new tenants and a further three have seen
the incumbent retailer choose to remain at the same rent, leaving
two units now void and in the process of being re-let. These two
units represent 0.5% of the total rent roll.
Across those properties, once re-let or where occupancy has
continued, we have actually seen a modest 1% increase in base rent.
Clearly, there is a short-term cost to the Company in the form of
void periods and new tenant incentives, however the speed with
which we ensure that the units are occupied is testament to the
quality of our portfolio.
We see no short-term cessation to this level of retail
disruption and the financial pressure it puts TCS under. We
therefore continue to pursue our strategy of reducing our exposure
to retail and reinvesting to reposition the portfolio even if this
impacts income in the short term.
Delivering and improving our development pipeline
A critical pillar of our strategy is to create long term future
value by building a significant development pipeline. Our pipeline
now has an estimated development value in excess of GBP600m, and in
the past year we have delivered a major PRS scheme, and further
added to the future opportunity:
-- We achieved practical completion of our joint venture PRS
development, Burlington House, in Manchester in June 2019. This
iconic scheme has been well received and was over 50% rented within
a month of completion
-- We achieved planning permission to build a 17-storey office
tower above a section of the Merrion Centre in Leeds.
Notice of results
The Company will issue its final results for the financial year
ended 30 June 2018 on Tuesday 24 September 2019.
Edward Ziff, Chairman and Chief Executive, commented:
"We continue to improve the business for the long term in line
with our strategy of repositioning our portfolio, strengthening it
through asset management and investing in our development pipeline.
I am particularly pleased with the completion of Burlington House,
our Private Rented Sector property in Piccadilly Basin, Manchester.
It is a high-quality asset and its early popularity re-enforces our
belief in the wider Piccadilly Basin development opportunity.
"We have been able to mitigate the continued disruption within
the Retail sector, through our proven ability to quickly re-let
units impacted by CVAs and administrations while improving rents;
this highlights the quality of our assets and the fact that
stronger performing retailers trade well within them. We are not
complacent however, and our sale this year of Rochdale Retail park
reinforces our willingness to continue to focus on recycling our
portfolio, this freeing up funds for investment and
development."
-Ends-
For further information, please contact:
Town Centre Securities PLC www.tcs-plc.co.uk / @TCS PLC
Edward Ziff, Chairman and Chief Executive 0113 222 1234
Mark Dilley, Group Finance Director
MHP Communications 0203 128 8572
Reg Hoare / Alistair de Kare-Silver tcs@mhpc.com
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
END
TSTRFMATMBJBBJL
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 17, 2019 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)
Grafico Azioni Town Centre Securities (LSE:TOWN)
Storico
Da Feb 2024 a Mar 2024
Grafico Azioni Town Centre Securities (LSE:TOWN)
Storico
Da Mar 2023 a Mar 2024