• Full-year pre-tax profit of £3mn (2024: loss of £4.4mn)
• NAV up from £44.5mn to £53mn (35.7p)
• Net debt down 15 per cent to £19.6mn
• 61 per cent share price discount to NAV
Chief executive Ben Habib of European property investor and fund manager First Property (FPO:13.75p) believes that the market “appears close to a bottom, following a severe downturn that hit office properties, in particular”. Although still a buyers’ market, and despite the uncertain economic outlook, Habib is “seeing some interesting deals, some of which we hope to secure”.
A material turnaround in its fortunes means that the group is now well-positioned. The main contributors to the swing back to profit were annualised cost savings of £0.65mn and a £1.7mn uplift in the fair value of a 23 per cent stake in an associate investment in Poland. The prior year’s pre-tax loss of £4.4mn mainly reflected £3.75mn of impairment charges on directly held investments.
