The company on Tuesday reported a profit of £1m for the six months ended August 31, from a £3.3m loss in the same period a year ago.

Although listed on the JSE, Tradehold earns all its income from investments in pounds, and reports its results in pounds to avoid the distortion caused by the fluctuating value of the rand.

Its main investments are an 85% holding in the Moorgarth group of property companies, 71% of Reward Investments — an asset-backed short-term lending business — and an indirect holding of 15.9% in the retail group Instore.

Tradehold has no operating assets in South Africa and its chairman is Christo Wiese.

"The British economy remained in the doldrums during the reporting period with official figures released at the end of July indicating that the economy had shrunk for three consecutive quarters.

"However, towards the end of the period there was the start of a surge in job creation; inflation decreased closer to the government’s target of 2%, while consumer spending was slowly starting to gain momentum," the company said.

In the six months ending August, it said revenue grew to £4.719m from £3.241m.

The company said its expectation, at the end of the previous period, that the outlook for Reward Investments was highly promising was proven correct in the period under review when net profit of £400,000, after tax and members’ interests, exceeded the £200,000 achieved for the whole of the previous year.

Moorgarth produced a net profit of £700,000, from £400,000 in 2011, boosted by a net increase of £500,000, primarily driven by an escalation in the value of one of its properties for which planning permission for residential development was obtained. The value of the portfolio, which includes unencumbered retail, leisure and commercial properties, stood at £54.2m at the end of the period.

"Few property investment opportunities were available during the first four months of the period, although towards the end of the period a number of shopping centre opportunities have come to the market," Tradehold said.

During the period under review, Moorgarth acquired a shopping centre in Glasgow at an "attractive" gross initial yield.

Looking ahead, the company said it would consider selling the smaller assets within the existing portfolio with a view to replacing these with higher yielding, better-quality assets, primarily in the retail sector.

"In the second half of the year the focus will be on acquiring more secondary retail warehouse and shopping centre properties," it said.

Source: BDLive