Business
Trading Statement
Trading Statement.
About this update from Safestore Holdings Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n Safestore Holdings PLC\n08 May 2007\n\n\nFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\n\n Safestore Holdings plc\n\n ('Safestore' or 'the Company')\n\n\n Pre-Close Trading Update\n\nSafestore Holdings plc, the UK's number one and Europe's number two self storage\nprovider, is pleased to report on its trading progress for the six months ended\n30 April 2007 prior to entering its close period.\n\nFinancial Highlights:\n\n •A 15.1% increase in revenue during the period to £34.7m (like-for-like\n stores increase of 13.7% to £34.0m)\n •An increase of 6.3% on the closing occupancy for the period to circa 2.8m\n sq ft (like-for-like stores increase of 4.2% to circa 2.7m sq ft)\n •At the period end, the Group portfolio of 99 stores comprised a maximum\n lettable area of approximately 4.1 million sq ft with around 3.75 million sq\n ft currently built out\n •An increase of 8.0% to £20.95 in average annual rent per sq ft\n (like-for-like stores increase of 8.3% to £21.14)\n\nProperty Portfolio\n\nDuring the first half of the financial year, Safestore has further expanded its\nproperty portfolio and has successfully added an additional 112,000 sq ft of\nself storage space. This has been delivered through the successful opening of a\nnew facility in Slough, a satellite store in Burnley and extending the store at\nStaples Corner. These stores were opened prior to the Company's IPO in March\n2007. The initial trading of these new stores has been encouraging.\n\nSince its IPO, Safestore has:\n •Finalised the lease of a satellite store in Stevenage which is due to\n open in the third quarter of the financial year and will provide an\n additional 19,500 sq ft of storage to the existing store.\n •Successfully received planning approval for an additional 17,000 sq ft\n extension at the Liverpool store and a further 30,000 sq ft at the Clichy\n facility in Paris.\n •Contracted all 13 expansion stores, details of which were outlined during\n the IPO. Planning approval has been gained on twelve of these stores.\n •Extended the lease on the Stoke Newington facility from two to twenty\n years. We expect the extension of the lease to positively impact the\n property valuation of this site.\n\n\nSteve Williams, Chief Executive of Safestore, said:\n\n'We have made solid progress towards delivering upon the strategy outlined at\nthe time of the IPO. In th...