News and Press Releases

Chief Executive Ben Habib discusses the Group’s Interim results for the six months to 30 September 2024.

Simon Thompson recommends shareholders take up their allocation in the deeply discounted open offer. He notes that “pro-forma NAV of £47.4mn equates to a fully diluted NAV per share of 31.5p, implying the shares are priced on less than half book value, a high level of risk aversion.” He adds that “a more benign interest rate environment could spark interest in deep value property plays and First Property is one for the watchlist.”

Simon Thompson notes “the widening of the share price discount to NAV from 42 to 61 per cent since the annual results is largely due to greater investor risk aversion. When the gloom lifts expect the discount to narrow. Hold.”

Reporting on the Group’s FY 2024 Preliminary Results, Simon Thompson noted they were hit by impairments but that the company is well placed to benefit when the gloom lifts. He concludes that “it’s too early to turn buyer again but a more benign interest rate environment could spark interest in deep value property plays. First Property is one for your watchlist. Hold.”

Fprop CEO Ben Habib discusses the Group’s financial results for the year to 31 March 2024.

Our Interim Results for the six months to 30 September 2023 can be watched back here.

Property fund manager and investor First Property Group has launched a senior loan platform to finance and refinance commercial property. The business will focus on making interest-only loans of up to £20m at a maximum of 65% loan-to-value ratio.

Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) can be watched back here.

Comment following Fprop’s FY 2023 Results – NAV up, underlying earnings up, leasing progress, new lending division, yet shares trade at c50% discount to NAV.

Fprop CEO Ben Habib argues the case for lending against commercial property in the current higher interest rate environment. “The returns to be earned from lending are now as high as the kind of returns which had been available from investing in the underlying assets. And, of course, it is less risky to lend than to buy.”

Following yesterday’s release of the Group’s Preliminary Results for the year to 31 March 2023, Simon Thompson of Investors Chronicle updated his “buy” recommendation. The article concludes with: “Priced on a 42% share price discount to book value, and with a reduction in vacancy rates supporting valuations at the group’s directly held high-yielding properties, the shares remain attractively priced. Buy.”

Heather Sandlin reports on Fprop’s new loan product and quotes CEO Ben Habib, who said: “Our move into senior secured commercial property lending via this platform is in response to a clear gap in the market created by higher interest rates and a retreat of traditional lenders, including banks. Our loan platform offers borrowers better terms than are typically available and investors in loans made on the platform a high rate of return. For these reasons it is a good time to be entering the market.”