Quintain cheers investors despite losses widening
PROPERTY investor Quintain Estates saw its share price soar yesterday despite being hit by valuation write-downs as its annual pre-tax losses widened to £48.1m for the first three months of this year compared to a loss of £10.2m a year earlier.
The developer of malls, student homes and regeneration schemes said full-year net asset value (NAV) per share fell to 116p, from 120p a year ago, mostly on a writedown in the value of its property assets.
But the firm’s shares rose by 5.7 per cent to 52.5p reflecting its progress in revitalising its business and an increasingly strong outlook, giving the company a market capitalisation of £266.8m.
Chairman William Rucker said the company’s key plan for the coming financial year is to restart development programme at Greenwich Peninsula and to continue the build-out of the Western Core at Wembley City.
Quintain is also building a 361 room Hilton Hotel and 660 bed student accommodation building, both adjacent to Wembley Stadium.
The hotel is expected to open for the Olympic Games and the student accommodation for the 2012-13 academic year.