The highlights are: profit before tax up 71.4% to £4.8m (2003: £2.8m), earnings per share up 61.1% to 2.9p (2003: 1.8p), interim dividend per share up 8.3% to 2.6p (2003: 2.4p), net asset value per share up 29.9% to 678p (2003: 522p), management and performance fees up 77.6% to £10.3m (2003: £5.8m) and funds under management (investment properties in HUT/CLOUT/PREF) up 23.9% to £3.06bn (2003: £2.47bn).
Achievements:
- Strong performance of Hercules Unit Trust (“HUT”) with 13% increase in unit price during the half year
- Return of capital to shareholders on 19 August of £109.7m
- New Hercules Income Fund (“HIF”) created by Pillar to focus on smaller UK retail parks
- Restructuring of CLOUT has created separate vehicles for the investment and development assets. This will facilitate the proposed raising of new equity
- €133.4m new equity raised for PREF since the beginning of the financial year
- Sale of interest in Gallions Reach Shopping Park, Beckton for £78.8m to private consortium completed in October
Raymond Mould, Chairman of Pillar Property, commented: “Over the past six months Pillar has focused on increasing returns from our core businesses of retail parks in the UK and Europe and our City of London office portfolio. These results are testament to that focus, in particular the continued growth in valuation and performance of the HUT portfolio during the period. We are delighted with the new equity we have secured for PREF and are confident of bringing in new equity for the restructured CLOUT investment portfolio and for the newly formed HIF. We look forward to further growth in valuation and performance from these funds through Pillar’s active management of the assets and remain optimistic that we will meet our expectations for another successful year.”
Source: Pillar Property
