Schroder European Real Estate Investment Trust PLC on Tuesday said it will return a special dividend to its shareholders after touting a ‘strong’ first half of its financial year.
The London and Johannesburg-listed property investor reported sharply higher pretax profit at €12.7 million for the financial year ended March 31, up from €822,000.
But net rental income fell by 7.9% to €5.8 million from €6.3 million, despite getting a boost from 100% rent collection and high portfolio occupancy rate of 95%.
Schroder declared an interim dividend of 3.7 cents, up from 3.4 cents. In addition, it will pay out another special dividend of 4.75 cents, bringing the combined interim dividend to 6.6 cents. For the full year to September 30, the group returned 4.8 cents in special dividend.
Earnings per share declined to 1.9 cents from 2.1 cents.
‘We have delivered a strong set of results and are pleased to be in a position to announce a further special distribution to shareholders on the back of successfully executing on our asset management programme,’ said Schroder Chair Julian Berney.
The company said it was well placed to continue outperforming.
The company expects the outlook for European real estate returns to be muted over the short term, but said new acquisitions will provide further diversification and help maintain the attractive dividend.
Shares in Schroder were unchanged at R 21.15 on Tuesday morning in Johannesburg. In London, they were up 0.5% at 105.00 pence.
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