Langtree’s Ainscough sees ‘development turning point’
Developer-investor Langtree has reported pre-tax profits of £3.2m on turnover of £16.4m for the year to July 2013.
The company is reporting pre-tax profits of £3.2m for the year to June 2013. Turnover was £15.7m and the net asset value of the business was £71.6m. Occupancy across the company's portfolio was at 85% at the end of the year. Turnover in 2012 was £37.2m and pre-tax profit was £12.9m.
During the year, the group completed the acquisition of a 28-acre mixed use site at Tunstall in Stoke and 250,000 sq ft Speke Hall and Sky Park multi-let industrial estates in South Liverpool. A number of strategic partnerships with local authorities were also progressed.
Bill Ainscough, chairman said the company was positioning itself for the future in anticipation of an improvement to the property industry landscape.
He said: "We have significantly expanded our already sizeable property portfolio and have secured positions on a number of major new development opportunities by taking advantage of our financial strength, lower values and generally reduced activity in the market.
"As long as market conditions remain favourable for acquisitions we will continue to be active in the market and further significant additions to both the development and the property portfolio can be expected during the coming year.
"I am now hopeful that 2012/2013 will be the turning point in terms of both rental levels and property values generally. We have seen values stabilise this year and we are now cautiously seeing limited signs of growth as stock is taken up whilst new supply has been very limited over the past few years and is likely to remain the case for the foreseeable future.
"Encouragingly we are also now becoming much more active on the development front and expect this trend to continue going forward. The focus this year has been to secure positions on a number of strategic new opportunities that are well placed to come forward as market conditions improve.
"There is no doubt that the last few years have been a challenge but I believe that Langtree has not only weathered the economic downturn but has emerged in very good shape and ready to go again and take advantage of any improvement in the property market going forward."
John Downes, chief executive, said: "Conditions remain challenging but we believe the last year may have seen a turning point in the market.
"The year to June 2013 was all about progressing strategic opportunities and advancing our position on key sites so that we would be well placed to take advantage of improving conditions.
"As always we continue to work hard to get the best return from our existing assets and with the significant investment programme on new opportunities that we have implemented we are in very good shape as a business as the market begins to improve.
"We will continue to explore new and innovative ways of delivering high quality development schemes with our partners and believe the year ahead will be an extremely successful one."
