Expanded portfolio pays off for First Property

First Property was reaping the rewards of an expanded portfolio on Thursday, as the AIM-listed company announced its half year results.

The property investment firm recorded an unaudited statutory profit before tax of £5.93m for the six months to 30 September, a 9.4% jump on the same period in 2014.

First’s property portfolio almost doubled in value too - from £63.1m last September to £125.9m in this report, at book value. The firm reported the market value of its portfolio as £125.9m.

The company increased its geographic spread too, reducing its reliance on property in Poland. 53.8% of its property was held in Poland by the end of this period, compared with 66.9% in the last period. 43.6% was in the UK, and an unchanged figure of 2.6% was held in Romania.

“We are now reaping the rewards of the investments made by Fprop Opportunities plc and ourselves over the last two years, which contributed some £5.2 million to Group profit before tax in the first half”, commented Ben Habib, chief executive of First Property.

“We intend to continue to invest in high income generating property, most likely in Poland and ideally in partnerships with third parties. We are currently working on several such opportunities.”

First Property announced a dividend of 0.385p per share.

At 14:25 GMT on Thursday, shares in First Property were up 1.07% to 47.25p.