Walls & Futures REIT PLC (WAFR) Final Results and Audited
Annual Report and Accounts for the Year to 31 March 2021
09-Sep-2021 / 16:30 GMT/BST Dissemination of a Regulatory
Announcement that contains inside information according to
REGULATION (EU) No 596/2014 (MAR), transmitted by EQS Group. The
issuer is solely responsible for the content of this
announcement.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES
OF REGULATION 11 OF THE MARKET ABUSE (AMENDMENT) (EU EXIT)
REGULATIONS 2019/310.
9 September 2021
WALLS & FUTURES REIT PLC
("Walls & Futures" or the "Company")
Final Results and Audited Annual Report and Accounts for the
Year to 31 March 2021
Walls & Futures REIT plc ("WAFR") the Ethical Housing
Investor and Developer, is pleased to announce its final results
and the publication of its audited annual report and accounts for
the year to 31 March 2021. A copy of the annual report and accounts
has been published on the Company's website,
www.wallsandfutures.com, in accordance with its articles of
association, and can also be viewed through a link at the bottom of
this announcement.
Walls & Futures is an ethical housing investor and developer
on a mission to address the unfulfilled demand for specialist
social housing in the UK.
We design, fund and develop specialist social housing which is
let on Full Repairing and Insuring (FRI), inflation linked leases
to our partners and customers who include local authorities,
registered providers and charities. Their tenants are often
individuals with learning & physical disabilities, autism,
dementia, mental health and life changing injuries.
Walls & Futures REIT plc does not have any involvement with
the care delivered within the properties, this is managed by care
providers approved by local authorities.
Highlights
-- Net Asset Value (NAV) down 4.9% to 102p per share (2020: 107p
per share)
-- Revenue GBP148,420 up 7.5% (2020: GBP138,036)
-- Loss -GBP214,169 (2020: Profit of GBP625,767)
-- 100% of Specialist Supported Housing rents collected
-- 97% of Private Rental Sector rents collected
-- Investment property value fell by 1%
-- Earnings per share -5.70p (2020: 16.93p)
-- Outperformed MSCI UK residential benchmark by 423% for year
ending 31 December 2020
-- Generated over GBP1.3m cash through sale of two Private
Rented Sector (PRS) properties with funds to beinvested in new
SSH
-- Repaid entire GBP600,000 revolving credit facility
-- Pipeline of new partners & projects
Key elements of the final results can be viewed below.
Joe McTaggart, CEO of Walls & Futures REIT plc said:
"Against the challenging economic backdrop caused by Covid-19,
we are pleased with the performance of our portfolio which saw 100%
of our Specialist Supported Housing rents and 97% of our Private
Rental Rents collected.
Our investment strategy showed further resilience as we
outperformed our benchmark, the MSCI UK Residential Annual Property
Index for the fourth year running with a total return of 3.53% over
0.57%.
We're looking forward to announcing further partners in the
coming months and continuing to build the future of specialist
supported housing with the launch of our bespoke modular housing
solution for autism."
For further information, contact:
Walls & Futures REIT PLC 0333 700 7171
Joe McTaggart, Chief Executive
Website www.wallsandfutures.com
Allenby Capital Limited (Corporate Adviser)
Nick Harriss/James Reeve 020 3328 5656
Overview
Against the challenging economic backdrop caused by Covid-19,
which has seen many property companies experience non-payment of
rents and significant falls in asset values, we are pleased with
the robust performance of our portfolio. For the 12 months to 31st
March 2021, we collected 100% of the Specialist Supported Housing
(SSH) and 97% of Private Rental Sector (PRS) rents due.
Part of our strategy, previously outlined, involved selling our
London PRS properties, which were let on Assured Shorthold
Tenancies (ASTs), to fund further SSH investments. The sale was
delayed by emergency legislation introduced by the government to
protect tenants on ASTs, with notice periods increased to 6 months.
Working with our tenants we completed the sale of two of the three
properties.
Our Wimbledon property completed in June 2020 at GBP656,000 and
was followed by one of our Southfields properties which completed
in January 2021 at GBP660,000. Generating a total of GBP1,316,000
in cash before fees, part of which was used to pay down our
GBP600,000 revolving credit facility.
Following the valuation of our property assets, we can report a
modest fall of 1.9% due to a fall in our last PRS property. Our SSH
assets remained the same as last year. As at 31st March 2021, our
Net Asset Value (NAV) fell by 4.9% to 102p per share.
Our investment strategy built on developing our own projects has
enabled us to build a resilient portfolio. We are delighted to
announce that for the calendar year ending 2020, our portfolio
outperformed the benchmark, MSCI UK Residential property index
delivering a total return of 3.53% vs 0.57%. This is the fourth
consecutive year we have outperformed the benchmark. Our intention
is to scale the business so our investment strategy, which averaged
a total return of 268%, is reflected in terms of operating cash
flow and share price.
To illustrate the financial impact of our strategy, we have to
date invested a total of GBP1.34 million in SSH developments. Based
on the long-term nature of the leases, the quality of the covenants
and the income generated they are currently valued at GBP2.57
million. An increase of GBP1.23 million in value or 92 percent.
Unsolicited offer and share price performance
On 8th April 2021, we received an unsolicited bid from Virgata
Services Ltd. It materially undervalued the company and was
overwhelmingly rejected by our shareholders and ultimately lapsed
on 6th July 2021.
Our share price has underperformed relative to our NAV over the
last few years. We believe a significant component this is due to a
small number of shareholders who hold their Walls & Futures
Shares on one particular investment platform continually selling
because the platform was unfamiliar with the regulatory status of
the AQSE Growth Market.
We believe the majority of the Shareholders are long term
holders so in the short term we are actively working to engage with
new investors to replace the minority of shareholders who voted to
accept the bid. With fewer investors selling and more buying into
the company we believe this will serve to close the discount that
we currently trade at.
Additionally, we have had constructive discussions with Aquis
regarding improving liquidity in Walls & Futures Shares.
In November 2020, the Aquis Stock Exchange introduced a new
market-making scheme with founding market makers Canaccord Genuity,
Liberum, Peel Hunt, Shore Capital, Stifel and Winterflood
Securities all supporting the initiative to reduce spreads and
increase liquidity.
Both AJ Bell and Interactive Investor recently announced that
they have added AQSE Growth Market securities to their online
trading platforms, extending AQSE Growth Market investment
opportunities to over 500,000 retail investors. It is reported that
Hargreaves Lansdown and IG Group are also working with Aquis to
include Aquis Stock Exchange traded securities on their online
offering, joining Barclays Smart Invest and Jarvis who already
offer most AQSE Growth Market securities online.
Outlook for the future
Throughout 2020, we actively engaged with stakeholders including
special education needs (SEN) schools, care providers, local
authority commissioners, charities and housing associations in
order to identify an area that was not being adequately served.
We concluded that autism was an area where we could apply our
experience of delivering high quality, design led, specially
adapted homes. This has enabled us to maximise both our positive
social impact and generate returns for our ethically minded
investors.
We have developed direct relationships with new partners across
a network of specialist charities, care providers and housing
associations who provide support, care and advice to those affected
by autism.
Together with these partners, who geographically cover most of
England, we plan to provide small, innovative housing solutions to
accommodate three to ten individuals with autism per development.
The aim is to provide our partners with the ability to deliver a
pathway of progress and highly specialised services which can
support individuals, from childhood (as young as seven), through
adolescence and onto adulthood. With the right support, individuals
will be able to progress through autism-specific homes and avoid
hospitals.
We have now agreed lease terms and signed memorandums of
understanding with new partners covering the North East, South West
and the South East. These memorandums set out the framework for the
provision of SSH which will be let to our partners on long term
leases and work together on joint venture opportunities to deliver
new schemes. There is no guarantee that these memorandums will
result in final agreements being entered into with these
partners.
We are in the process of finalising the design of our bespoke
home for autism. Designed in collaboration with a specialist
architectural practice and our partners, we believe our autism
housing solution enables us to deliver homes at scale, that support
the needs and sensory requirements of individuals across the autism
spectrum.
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
September 09, 2021 11:30 ET (15:30 GMT)
Walls & Futures REIT (AQSE:WAFR)
Historical Stock Chart
From Oct 2024 to Nov 2024
Walls & Futures REIT (AQSE:WAFR)
Historical Stock Chart
From Nov 2023 to Nov 2024
