Hansteen increases its 2015 full year dividend by 5%

DividendMax Ltd.

Hansteen increases its 2015 full year dividend by 5%

Financial Highlights

IFRS profit before tax increased by 30.6% to £171.4 million (FY 2014: £131.2 million)

EPRA NAV per share increased by 9% to 111p (31 December 2014: 102p)

Total return to shareholders of 17.6p or 17.3% (EPRA NAV plus 8.1p dividend paid)

Full year dividend increased by 5.0% to 5.25p per share (2014: 5.0p per share)

Normalised Income Profit of £47.2 million (FY 2014: £48.2 million)

Normalised Total Profit of £63.2 million (FY 2014: £65.3 million)

Net debt to property value ratio of 41.2% (31 December 2014: 41.1%)

Operational Highlights

Acquisition of units in the Ashtenne Industrial Fund Unit Trust ("AIF") increasing our interest from 36.7% to 81.8% during the year

Sale of HPUT II for £192.1 million at a profit to Hansteen of £4.7 million and £31.7 million over total acquisition cost

£86.3 million of other sales at a yield of 6.9% with a total profit of £8.7 million (over 31 December 2014 valuation) and £21.2 million over total acquisition cost

£68.0 million of properties acquired at an average yield of 7.8%

Property valuation increase across the total portfolio of 11.1%

Like-for-like occupancy improvement of 148,404 sq m

Like-for-like rent roll improvement of £2.0 million per annum

Placing of 35.7 million shares to raise £39.4 million

James Hambro, Chairman, commented: "Once again it has been a record year with the business making a total return to shareholders of 17.6p per share or 17.3%. While we expect that the UK and European economies over the next few years will be subject to low interest rates and low growth, this environment should play to Hansteen's strengths. We pay a high dividend, well covered by earnings and we have the capacity to continue to grow these earnings through a combination of improving occupancy, rental growth and income enhancing trading; selling lower yielding properties and buying higher yielding properties".

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