Hunters Property Plc (“Hunters” or the “Company” or the “Group”), one of the UK’s largest franchised sales and lettings agency businesses, is pleased to announce its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2019.
Financial Highlights:
· Network Income up +7% to £19.2m (six months to June 2018: £17.9m);
· Revenue £6.6m (2018: £6.7m);
· Adjusted operating profit* up +30% to £1.1m (2018: £0.85m);
· Adjusted earnings per share increased +13% to 2.30p (2018: 2.03p); and
· Interim dividend up +9% to 0.87p per share (2018: 0.80p per share).
* Adjusted operating profit is before depreciation, amortisation, impairments and profit/loss on disposal of non-current assets, acquisition and share-based payments expenses. Excluding the impact of IFRS 16 Adjusted operating profit for H1 2019 was £857,000.
Operational Highlights:
· Converted eight new branches in this period at an average Network Income per branch of £425,000 (2018: £186,000);
· Expanded our branch network to 200 (December 2018: 197);
· Investing significantly in our software capability as well as bolstering the management team;
· Two further lettings books have been acquired by franchisees, making use of our acquisition fund facility for branches to expand, and bringing our investments to 15;
· Grown lettings income across the network by 12% for the period; and
· Returned a Customer Satisfaction Rating of 96% (Dec 2018: 96%).
Outlook
· Board remains confident the second half will, as in prior years, outperform the first six months despite the impact of the Tenant Fee Ban (which at £0.3m remains broadly in line with the Board’s expectations) and against sales listings for the market as a whole reporting a 7%1 decline this period according to Rightmove data;
· Independent businesses continue to join the Hunters network to mitigate the current uncertainty and challenging economic backdrop; and
· Strong net asset position and facilities available to continue our growth plans.
Glynis Frew, Chief Executive of Hunters Property Plc, commented:
“We have delivered a good set of results in the first six months. The market has been held back by the wider economic uncertainty and the tenant fee ban. However, we continue to roll out our mitigation strategy as regards the ban which is well underway and is on plan.
We continue to offer a very attractive solution to suitable, independent businesses who see the advantages of joining the Hunters network. In fact, we are experiencing increasingly strong businesses seeing that benefit.
Going forward we believe our exceptional customer service at local level combined with enhanced technical expertise, automated compliance and increased productivity will boost our offering even further. We are investing in our software to advance our strategy to grow and develop the franchise system having recruited a COO with fifteen years’ experience in the industry as well as being bolstered by the support of our network in embracing that change.
The continuing work and support displayed by our staff and the franchise network itself is a credit to the Group. I offer, on behalf of the Board, our gratitude to everyone that is involved.”
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