Allan Lockhart
Founder, CEO & Director
Well, good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today is really about demonstrating something quite straightforward that the strategy that we’ve been pursuing over the past few years is now translating into progress. And the operational evidence is beginning to show clearly in the numbers. FY ’26 was our first full year of benefit from the Capital Regional acquisition, and we see it as an important step forward in both scaling our platform and improving the composition of our portfolio.
Our presentation this morning is focused on 3 key things: first, how the business has performed during the year. Second, how we have repositioned the portfolio. And third, how we leverage that improved position into income growth and long-term value for shareholders.
Turning to FY ’26. We’ve delivered growth across the measures that matter most. Underlying funds from operations increased to GBP 37.2 million. Our well-covered dividend has grown to 6.7p per share, and we delivered a sector-leading 9.4% total accounting return.
Two things are driving this: operational delivery and capital discipline. On operational delivery, we agreed rents 37.3% ahead of the previous passing rent and 8.5% ahead of ERV. That is real pricing power across the portfolio, and it is showing through in our third consecutive period of valuation growth. On capital discipline, we have recycled assets at book value, completed a share buyback, reduced our LTV, and refinanced the balance sheet onto a fully unsecured structure.
So what we’re seeing is not simply short-term improvement, but the early evidence of a portfolio that is more focused and well positioned for income-led growth.