LONDON (ShareCast) - Workspace Group, which provides business premises for small and medium sized businesses, plunged deeper into the red as a result of property write-downs but traded profitably at the operating level.
In the year to
31 March 2009 the company made a trading profit after interest charges of £10m, up 12.3% from £8.9m the year before.
However, a £325.3m hit from the revaluation of its property portfolio saw the loss before tax widen to £360.4m from £37m the year before. The company also took charges for an interest-rate swap allocation (£26.1m), joint venture losses (£23.9m).
Revenue rose 4.3% from £67m to £70m. Average rent per square foot rose 6.4% to £12.64.
The occupancy rate slid to 80.3% from 85.8%, the year before while on a like for like (LFL) basis the rate was down to 83.4% from 89.6%.
‘Enquiries are running at high levels and our conversion rate remains good,’ said chief executive Harry Platt.
A final dividend of 0.5p has been proposed.
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