Business
Financial Year End Trading Statement
Financial Year End Trading Statement.
About this update from First Property Group Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 9644B First Property Group PLC 10 April 2013 \n \n\n\n\n\n\nDate:\n\n\n10 April 2013\n\n\n\n\nOn behalf of:\n\n\nFirst Property Group plc (\"First Property\" or the \"Group\")\n\n\n\n\nEmbargoed for:\n\n\n07:00\n\n\n\n\n \nFirst Property Group plc (\"FPO\" or the \"Company\")\nFinancial Year End Trading Statement\n \nFirst Property Group plc (AIM: FPO), the commercial property fund management group with operations in the United Kingdom and Central Europe (principally Poland), today issues a trading update for the year ended 31 March 2013. \nProfit before tax for the year is expected to meet broker forecasts. Preliminary results are scheduled to be announced on 05 June 2013 and an analyst meeting will be held at 09.30am at the offices of First Property Group plc, 35 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H, 9JA. A conference call facility will also be available on +44 (20) 3139 4830, pin number 33971633#.\nAssets under management as at 31 March 2013 were £353 million (2012: £366 million), of which 71% by value were located in Poland, 26% by value in the UK and 3% by value in Romania. \nThe Polish economy continues to grow, albeit at a slower pace than in 2011 and 2010. Our Polish portfolio of properties continues to trade well.\nThe UK economy remains sluggish at best but our UK portfolio of properties was acquired during the credit crunch with the weakness of the economy factored into our investment decisions. Consequently that portfolio is also trading well. \nInvestor and lending confidence has risen since its lows in the first half of 2012, significantly assisted by central bank action in the USA, the UK and Europe. This has created a number of bubbles in various parts of the property market. Our resolute pursuit of income returns over capital gain should assist us in avoiding these bubbles. \nWe are seeing a number of attractive investment opportunities in both Poland and the UK and are in the process of securing these and raising additional funds to finance their acquisition.\nBen Habib, CEO of the Group, said: \n \"The Group has ended the year in excellent shape. This is now the sixth year of the credit crunch, a period during which we have remained profitable at all times and increased our dividend. Our client funds have also performed well against this difficult back drop.\n\"We are see...