Local Shopping rescue plan continues with property disposals

Local Shopping's rescue plan continued apace on Thursday, as the real estate investment trust updated the market on the last 12 months.

The FTSE Fledgling Index-listed property investment firm, which specialises in convenience store units, posted its audited results for the year ended 30 September 2015 on Thursday.

It saw profit take a nosedive, from £1.21m last year to £0.02m this year - equivalent to 0.02p per share.
Local Shopping's portfolio dipped slightly in value as well, down to £81.2m (from £87.6m in 2014). Net asset value remained flat at £34.9m.

The company pointed to the recovering economy and boost in household disposable income as being a positive for the retail sector over the year, against a background of falling store prices.

"Within this mixed environment, local and independent retailers continue to perform well, with the Association of Convenience Stores reporting 5% year-on-year sales growth amongst local shops", a spokesperson said.

"Despite the continuing improvement in consumer fundamentals, retail has lagged the other main property investment sectors, with rental and yield performance weaker than office and industrial markets", they added.

The trust's net debt was reduced on loan-to-value ratio terms. It stood at £42.95m, ot 52.89% of value - down from 56.12% in 2014.

Over the year, Local Shopping completed the sale of 37 properties for a combined consideration of £5.33m - a gross premium of 9.1% of the valuations at the time the properties went under offer.

Seventy-one vacant commercial units were let, at an aggregate annual rent of £533,170, and 33 rent reviews were complete to bring a rental uplift of £54,593 (9.83%). Forty-seven leases were renewed, although at an aggregate rental decrease of £8,666. Local Shopping stressed these remained 8.42% above market rent.

Looking ahead, the trust said it was relatively financial stable at the end of the period after selling down its assets, which allowed it to restructure remaining debt to good advantage. It also pointed to its "sensible" cash balance of £12.7m.

"However, the board remains very mindful of the need to expedite the sale of the remaining property assets whilst preserving as much shareholder value as is reasonably possible", the spokesperson said.

Local Shopping's board said it anticipated possible further portfolio sales in addition to its ongoing programme of individual property disposals, and it would continue to update the market on such decisions.