Safestore hit by property re-valuation and currency costs

Safestore, the provider of self storage in the UK and France, has dropped dramatically in morning trading after revealing a near-12m sterling pre-tax loss.

Figures for the six months to April 30th, show the company's property portfolio valuation has been reduced by £24m (or 3.4%) compared to the end of October last year.

Obviously, Safestore has to reflect that loss in the numbers released today, as well as £12m in currency translation losses incurred in moving money from France back to HQ.

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Combined, those two effects have lead to a pre-tax loss of £11.8m and a loss per share of 3.31p.

The group's other metrics look reasonable, one indicator often used by storage firms is revenue per available foot, which has risen 7.6%, while total revenues have climbed 6.4% on the prior year to £48.4m.

The interim dividend has also been boosted 5.7% to 1.85p.

Unfortunately for Safestore though, the market seems to only really care about the loss. At 09:52, the stock was down 9.3%.

BS