The pre-tax profits of Network Space, the commercial property investment, development and management group, have surged to £19.2 million, more than doubling the previous year’s result.
Following a restructure and rebranding in June 2015 the group has focussed its operations on the industrial property market and has gone from strength to strength. Each of the group’s operations has had a very successful year in its own right, which together combine to produce a record profit as well as seeing the underlying net asset value increase by 21%.
Richard Ainscough, Group Managing Director of Network Space commented “For our first year as Network Space I am delighted to report such an excellent performance, especially since it is a consequence of success on all operational fronts. We have continued to refine the investment portfolio, completed a number of developments, given the green-light to multiple new projects and have secured several new opportunities. Added to this we enjoy record occupancy whilst having simultaneously increased lease term and rental values. Needless to say it has been a very busy year for us, especially being right off the back of a major restructure and rebrand. But everyone has risen to the challenge and worked extremely hard to take advantage of market opportunities and deliver a fantastic result.
“Even more encouraging is that we begin this next year with funds exceeding £30 million available for future investment and development projects, which includes a pipeline of over 1.9 million sq ft of new industrial space. Since the EU referendum we have bought eight properties for a total of £15.5 million and in 2017 we expect to be on-site delivering 12 new industrial buildings totalling 300,000 sq ft in St Helens, Knowsley and Stoke. We continue to buy quality investment property and development land and we are making significant investments in our management systems to give us greater scalability – we are looking forward to a very exciting future.”