Success of industrial estate boosts St Modwen profits

The group is particularly pleased with the performance of its Parkside Industrial Estate in Doncaster, which it bought two years ago with only 40,000 sq ft occupied.

St Modwen’s chief executive Bill Oliver said it is now nearly fully let at 240,000 sq ft, producing a total rent of £400,000 a year.

“When we bought Parkside it was almost empty. Now its tenants include National Grid and it’s almost fully let, it’s very encouraging.”

Mr Oliver said the group would like to buy more developments in Yorkshire, but they are hard to find.

St Modwen said it is not seeing any sign of a North/South divide in the UK.

“We believe there is life out there in the regions, it’s not all bad,” he said, describing the group’s six-month performance in Yorkshire as “a reasonably good period”.

Stephen Prosser, North East and Yorkshire regional director for St Modwen, said: “The results reflect the length and breadth of the group’s activity. This is mirrored in the activity experienced in the region where we have seen good progress in our brownfield renewal programme.

“Our landbank, together with our strategy of focusing on opportunities that allow us to add value, means we are well placed to continue this growth.

“The extent of our offer – from land purchase, to planning, design, build and letting – and our flexible approach to working with our partners, has played a major part in improving regional income.”

Aside from Parkside in Doncaster, St Modwen has projects at Penistone Road and Holbrook Enterprise Park, both in Sheffield, Wheatley Hall Road in Doncaster and Melton Business Park in Hull.

The company said that the ability to secure new projects, either on its own or in joint ventures, give it continued confidence in both the results for the current financial year and its future growth.

St Modwen expects an increase in demand for developable residential land, but sees slow recovery in industrial and regional office markets.

The company raised its interim dividend by 10 per cent to 1.1p.

Pre-tax profits in the six months to May 31 rose 40 per cent to £37.4m, while property valuations rose by £25m.