Rugby Estates plans to cash in on the end of the real estate valuation rally
RUGBY Estates posted a pre-tax profit of £2.38m for the six months to the end of July, while the chairman pledged to sell more of its portfolio as the rally in property value runs out of steam.
Rugby, which sold its £37m real estate investment trust to ING in April, said it had also disposed of five properties in the six months, releasing £15.8m. The firm now has a directly-owned property portfolio worth £20.7m, and £4.4m available cash.
The firm returned 175p per share to investors in September, totalling £20.1m. Chairman David Tye said the firm expects to return at least 100p per share more early next year.
“Following the takeover of REIT Plc, Rugby continues to actively pursue support for a number of its initiatives to create new fund vehicles and secure new mandates,” he said.
Tye added that the price rally “now appears to have largely run out of momentum” and that the firm will speed up the sale of its remaining directly-owned portfolio.