Russia-focused Raven Property Group revalues portfolio up – Raven Property Group (RAV), the Russia-focused property company, has this morning published an update on the value of its portfolio; the major takeaway is that Russia’s economy and its real estate sector continue to improve. As well as the portfolio increasing in value, a stronger Russian rouble, on account of improving fundamentals, along with ongoing weakness in sterling (RAV’s reporting currency) is providing a exchange rate boost.
In the statement, RAV goes on to say that “Market rental levels are increasing and vacancy is decreasing. Accordingly, the company can report an increase in the rouble valuation of its portfolio of 1.1% to roubles 109.5bn, equating to a revaluation gain of £14.4m at the rouble sterling exchange rate of 82.2 on 31 May 2019. This represents an increase, before any associated tax and the impact of the strengthening of the rouble, in net asset value per share of 2.4p for ordinary shares in issue today.”
Onwards and upwards for Russia
Over the year to 31 December, 2018, weakness in the Rouble had a detrimental impact on the value of the property. Since then, the rouble has since returned to its three year average of 80 roubles to a pound, which will have a further beneficial impact on the property valuations when translated into sterling.
For a refresher, we covered the 2018 results, which you can access here. It has been a good few months for Russian assets; we note that JPMorgan Russian has been one of the best performing emerging market-focused investment companies in 2019.
RAV: Russia-focused Raven Property Group revalues portfolio up