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In reporting it's H1 results today, Helical Bar said that the market opportinities it has been waiting for are arriving as a number of very interesting schemes and investment opportunities are now being sold by the banks, institutions and over-geared private property companies and they regard the coming year as a 'buying' opportunity. We watch Helical Bar not because they are an especially big player, but because they are astute and experienced players in the market. Aspects of their results for the last six months are disappointing, especially the continued write-downs in their trading and development portfolio. However, this is the inevitable result of their way of doing business - they have not sat and looked at those assets with limited potential, they have marked to market and thrown themselves into selling them, placing a premium on recovering cash which they can recycle into new acquisitions with real potential upside. In total, they have sold circa £100 million of trading and development stock since April 2009, and £61 million since the year end in March. Of this latter sum, £45 million is of non-income producing stock.They may suffer further losses as they continue to aggressively sell trading and development stock. Equally, short term exceptional trading profits similar to their recent successes at Tideway, Battersea, and Riverbank House, Upper Thames Street have been hard to come by as a result of their standing back from the development market since 2004/5. Moving forward they have planted many 'acorns' to build up an exciting and profitable development portfolio for this cycle including 200 Aldersgate, out of town retail in Poland, White City, Mitre Square and others, but they must wait for market forces, planners, funds and last but not least for their future tenants to perform on their stage before they receive the fruits of their labour. Michael Slade, Chief Executive, said: "We believe that the investment and trading deals that we are now finding will provide income surpluses, capital gains and trading profits. As the cycle unfolds, the development opportunities we are now pursuing should produce substantial profits. Old fashioned property skills will be to the fore and we believe that the market today offers us the opportunity to produce the outperformance in the future that our shareholders have come to expect." Looking for Businesses for Sale or Commercial Property agents, find lettings and investment property in the UK? www.ukbusinessproperty.co.uk
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