LondonMetric Property has returned to profit after “a transformational period” for the business, posting IFRS profit of £118.7m for the year ended 31 March 2024 compared with a loss of £506.3m in the previous financial year.
The company posted EPRA earnings growth of 20.3% to £121.6m and its net contracted rent increased over the year from £145m to £340m following two M&A deals with LXi and CTPT that doubled the size of its portfolio. LondonMetric’s net rental income increased 20.6% to £177.1m and 21.7% on an IFRS basis.
The value of its portfolio doubled to £6bn due to merger activity and its total property return was 4.7%, outperforming IPD by 570bps. The company increased its dividend by 7.4% to 10.2p.
Logistics assets now represent 43% of LondonMetric’s portfolio and this number is expected to rise to more than 50% over the next year.
Andrew Jones, chief executive of LondonMetric, said: “This has been a transformational period for our company with the successful execution of two M&A transactions. We have doubled the size of our portfolio to £6bn, creating the UK’s leading triple net lease REIT and the third largest UK REIT by market capitalisation. Scale and income granularity are increasingly important and our activity has further enhanced our sector leading income metrics with reliable, predictable and exceptional income growth.
“Our financial performance again reflects our sectorial focus, strength of our portfolio and the efficiency with which it is run. Our material earnings growth allowed us to again increase our covered dividend by 7.4% and gives us confidence to increase our Q1 dividend for FY 2025 by 19%. This will be our tenth year of dividend progression; a performance that allows us to be called a dividend achiever.
“We are a thematic triple net income investor in structurally supported sectors with high quality assets that enjoy strong occupier contentment. Logistics remains our strongest conviction call for accelerated rental growth, particularly urban logistics, and this weighting is expected to increase materially as we reinvest proceeds from non core and ex-growth asset sales, with approximately £180m already sold or under offer since year end.
“We are fully aligned to shareholders with a shared mission and will be ruthlessly efficient in how we operate our business and how we allocate capital in our quest towards dividend aristocracy.”
