Unitech Corporate Park reports increased profits

Unitech Corporate Parks announced higher profits in its half-yearly report Wednesday as it appointed a new non-executive director of the commercial real estate company.

The investment firm reported a pre-tax profit of £17.8m in its results for the six months ended September 30th, 2012 - a 63% increase from £10.9m a year ago.

The news comes as the company revealed Terence Mahony would take over as non-Executive Director from Aubrey Adams who has decided to resign on December 31st to focus on his role as head of property in the Global Restruction Group of The Royal Bank of Scotland.

Mahony, 70, has more than 40 years experience in global financial companies including the Bank of London, White Weld, Paine Webber and HSBC.

Unitech is confident the company will benefit from Mahony's background in emerging market investments and will help continue to drive revenue.

In its latest half-yearly report the company's 60% share of the market valuation of assets were up 11.6% to £245.4m compared to £219.8m in the half ending March 2012.

It reported a slight increase in net value assets at £0.53 per share, up £0.52 per share from the last half.

The company's share of rental income including maintenance charges for the six months was reported at £13.3m, up from £9.9m the previous year. The report comes off the back of increased gain from fair value adjustment on investment property.

Donald Lake, non-Executive Chairman of Unitech said: "During the first half year we have continued to make good progress in letting the space within the company's portfolio and thereby increasing rental income. This is in line with our continued belief that the maximum value for shareholders will be achieved by creating investments which are substantially complete and well-let before we monetize that value.

"I would also like to take this opportunity to thanks Aubrey Adams for his significant contribution to the company over the past five years and to welcome Terry Mahony to the board."

Mahony, a resident of Hong Kong, is also chairman of VinaCapital which is the largest asset management company in Vietnam with three closed ended funds listed on AIM.

Unitech, which focuses on commercial real estate in India, has a market capital of £129m. Its share price dropped 1.37% to 36.00p at 15:20 Wednesday.

RD