Henry Boot grew its net asset value and delivered its “best ever” underlying profit for the financial year ended 31 December 2022.
Underlying profit increased from £29.3m in 2021 to £56.1m last year, driven by residential land and property development sales. Revenue leapt by 48% from £230.6m in 2021 to £341.4m last year.
Profit before tax increased to £45.6m (2021: £35.1m) up 29.7% and NAV per share grew to 295p (December 2021: 267p), an increase of 10.5%. The company’s proposed final dividend of 4.00p is 10.2% up on the 3.63p paid in 2021.
Tim Roberts, Henry Boot’s chief executive officer, said: “During what ended up being a turbulent year in which rising interest rates led to a rerating of the UK property market, Henry Boot delivered our best ever underlying profit and grew our NAV, which has allowed us to carry on increasing the dividend by 10%.
“The main driver of this performance has been strong sales activity across our three key markets of industrial and logistics, urban development and, most notably, residential where we successfully sold a record number of plots of land.
“Management actions, through nearly £30m of well-timed and accretive investment property sales, have led to a material outperformance of the investment portfolio against the CBRE index. Total property sales of £279m, combined with selective acquisitions, means gearing remains firmly at the bottom of our target range.
“Whilst we remain cautious about the near-term trading climate, expecting 2023 to be a tougher year, our rock solid balance sheet offers resilience to both weather any further economic uncertainty and to take advantage of any opportunities that arise from it.”
