17 January 2017 – trading update
The company has announced a trading update for the year ended 31 December 2017 ahead of its full year results, which will be announced on 23 March. It expects profit before tax and earnings per share for the year to be comfortably ahead of its previous revised expectations, as set out in a trading update in October. The final two months of 2017 saw strong trading activity across all business segments, as was the case in the rest of the year. The company is happy with both deal completions for 2017 and the progression of new opportunities for 2018 and beyond. Construction work flow at the Aberdeen Exhibition Centre also continued to plan throughout the last two months of the year and Stonebridge Homes, the company’s JV house builder, completed sales of 38 homes, almost half of its output for the year. Draft 2017 year end valuations of the group’s property portfolio have been received but despite gains on industrial properties this was below expectations following a reduction in the values of mixed-use secondary retail properties within the portfolio. Although the share price has moved higher we believe this is justified and retain our BUY rating.