In QuotedData’s morning briefing 7 February 2023:
- HICL Infrastructure (HICL) says that the deal it announced last May – a 55% stake in French fibre network ADTiM SAS – is not going ahead as certain conditions have not been fulfilled. However, it remains on track to complete its purchase of Texas Nevada Transmission before 31 March 2023. This last remaining commitment investment will be funded from its £400m revolving credit facility. HICL also has a £330m accordion facility available to make investments from its pipeline.
- Syncona (SYNC) says its NAV fell by 5.1% to 192.6p over the quarter ended 31 December 2022, driven by a weaker dollar and share price falls for Autolus Therapeutics, Achilles Therapeutics and Freeline Therapeutics. Its cash pile fell to £654m, having made investments totalling £92.7m. The sale of Neogene to AstraZeneca is complete.
- PRS REIT (PRSR) reported a slight uplift in EPRA NTA of 0.6% to 117.1p per share for the quarter to 31 December 2022. The rise in NAV reflected strong estimated rental value (ERV) growth of 5% since 30 June 2022, underpinned by high demand for the company’s rental homes. Like-for-like rental growth on stabilised sites on an annualised basis to 31 December 2022 was 5.7%, with rental growth on lets to new tenants averaging just above 10% and marginally below 5% on renewals with existing tenants. Affordability of rents was around 25%, which is well below Home England’s upper limit of average rent as a proportion of gross household income of 35%. The average net investment yield on the portfolio was at 4.3% at 31 December 2022 compared to 4.125% at 30 June 2022. However, strong ERV growth more than offset the yield movement. The company said: “It is also worth noting that against market-wide reductions in property investment values, the Single Family Rental sub-sector has delivered the strongest performance. Several factors account for this; high and increasing demand for this product, strong rental growth, which also reflects lack of supply, and the robust nature of portfolios underpinned by multiple individual covenants.” The board declared an interim dividend of 1.0p per ordinary share for the three months ended 31 December 2022.
- Phoenix Spree Deutschland (PSDL) provided a portfolio valuation update, with its Berlin residential portfolio falling in value by 3.1% in the year to 31 December 2022 (driven by a fall of 5.2% in the second half of the year). It has guided a NAV of between €5.09 and €5.14 – a decline of between 7.2% and 8.2%. The group says that “the outlook for property values in 2023 is likely to remain challenging and further declines in property values purely driven by macro factors such as higher medium term interest rates cannot be discounted. Although there remains uncertainty about real asset values, supply-demand imbalances within the Berlin PRS market remain firmly supportive of rental values. Demand for rental properties continues to rise as higher home ownership costs force potential buyers to remain within the rental system for longer.”