Plaza Centres plc - Interim Results

On 15 July, Plaza Centres plc published its interim results covering the six months ended 30 June 2013.

Performance Overview

During the period under review, revenue dropped by 7.5% to just over €1 million mainly due to the anticipated lower occupancy in view of the refurbishment programme carried out on the office floors. In fact, average occupancy during the period under review was at 83% compared to 93% in the first six months of 2012. Meanwhile, operating costs (comprising marketing, maintenance and administrative costs) only dropped by 5.4% to €1.7 million leading to a 7.9% decline in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to €0.87 million. Similarly, the EBITDA margin eased to 84% from 84.3% for the previous comparable six months.

After accounting for a depreciation charge of €0.18 million (June 2012: €0.19 million), the Company’s operating profit amounted to €0.69 million representing a 9.1% drop from the previous comparable period.

Net interest costs increased by 13.4% to €0.09 million. As a result, pre-tax profit contracted by 11.6% to €0.61 million and after deducting the tax expense of €0.23 million (June 2012: €0.26 million), Plaza’s net profit for the period under review amounted to €0.38 million, representing a 10.5% drop from the net profit registered during the six months ended 30 June 2012. This translated into an earnings per share of €0.013 compared to €0.015 during the first six months of 2012.

The balance sheet as at 30 June 2013 shows that shareholders’ funds dropped by 1.6% to €20.2 million when compared to the level as at 31 December 2012 as the €0.7 million dividend payment in respect of the 2012 financial year offset the profit registered during the period.

Dividend

Similar to previous years and in line with the Company’s dividend policy of only paying a final dividend, the Directors did not recommend the payment of an interim dividend.

Outlook

The announcement explained that most of the refurbishment works on the office floors were completed by the end of June 2013. Furthermore, the remaining vacant office areas are expected to be leased in the third and fourth quarter of 2013.

Nonetheless, the Directors do not anticipate a significant change in the Company’s performance in the next six months although they remain attentive to external market factors.

Download

Plaza Centres plc – Half-Year Report for the period ended 30 June 2013.