Harworth 2025 results show focus on I&L is paying off
The group has reported net value gains of £44.5m for the year, made up of £73.6m from industrial & logistics and a loss of £28.7m in the residential sector, as the group’s pivot towards data centres and power-enabled land continues to gain momentum.
Industrial & logistics
The I&L segment now accounts for 70% of the group’s portfolio value, up from 63% in 2024, and includes a £305m investment portfolio.
Returns on capital deployed reached 22.9% across I&L major developments and 8.7% within the investment portfolio.
Performance was supported by strong leasing and disposals activity, with vacancy reduced to 1.0%, considerably down from 5.6% the previous year.
During the period, the company also completed £47.7m of investment portfolio sales and delivered 1.4m sq ft of leasing, including 379,000 sq ft of new leases that generated £3.7m in additional rent.
Residential
It’s a different story on the residential side, with difficulties in the housing market supporting Harworth’s tactic of disposing of residential plots in order to reinvest the money into its I&L business.
During the group’s financial year 2025, Harworth completed 1,837 plot sales, including 725 under Planning Performance Agreements that generated £3.1m.
Freehold residential sales totalled £52m.
Looking ahead
Harworth highlighted significant progress in building its data centre and power-enabled land platform, with 0.8GW of power connections either conditionally secured or progressing through network operator pipelines, and near-term opportunities under active discussion.
The company also said enabling works have been completed or advanced on land capable of delivering 4m sq ft into I&L and emerging sectors.
It reported strong interest in 1.6m sq ft of potential transactions and a pipeline of 22.2m sq ft of land with consent or awaiting planning decisions, including schemes within the Northern Gateway joint venture.
Its broader land bank has the capacity to deliver up to 35m sq ft, with 75% either consented or in the planning system.
Meanwhile, in terms of hard finance, the group’s financial capacity has also strengthened with a refinanced revolving credit facility increased to £275m, alongside an accordion option to £325m.
Year-end liquidity stood at £127.1m, while loan-to-value was 15.6%, which is safely below the company’s sub-20% target, positioning it to support further I&L-led growth.
At group level, the net disposal value per share increased slightly to 224.4p, delivering a total accounting return of 1.7%.
Lynda Shillaw, chief executive of Harworth, commented: “I am pleased with the performance of our teams and our operational execution throughout 2025, positioning the portfolio to realise future upside potential and delivering a total property return of 8.4%, outperforming the MSCI UK Annual Property Index of 5.6%.
“As we continue to execute our strategy and reposition the portfolio towards I&L, our long-term through-the-cycle model, management actions and disciplined approach to capital deployment remain essential to creating value for shareholders, including our £1bn of EPRA NDV ambition and high-single, low double-digit total accounting return target.
“Over the last five years to 2025, the sustained delivery of our strategy has delivered cumulative Total Accounting Returns of 44.5%.
“Harworth is at the intersection of some of the UK’s most powerful trends, including data, advanced technologies, reindustrialisation and clean growth.
“Our land bank provides both strategic levers and optionality to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns, and the Harworth Platform underpinned by our specialist skills and ability to deliver successful serviced land and developments for world-leading businesses is central to stimulating and supporting economic growth in our regions.
“Land at scale, suitably zoned and power-enabled, is key to accessing emerging market opportunities such as data centres.
“For a subset of sites, we have been actively pursuing upside opportunities with 0.8GW of power connections either conditionally secured or in the pipeline with Network Operators.
“Together with further applications currently advancing, these represent significant progress towards both near and longer-term transactions that have the potential to deliver enhanced value gains and superior returns.
“While we are monitoring the conflict in the Middle East and its potential impact on the UK economy and our markets, we remain encouraged by a continued pipeline of strong interest across our I&L land and property portfolio of 1.6m sq ft.
“We are in a strong position to capitalise on market trends and unlock value to crystallise attractive medium-term opportunities, giving the board confidence in Harworth’s potential to deliver exciting projects and achieve attractive shareholder returns.”
