Harworth Group plc (LON:HWG), a leading regeneration and strategic land owner and developer, has announced its results for the six months ended 30 June 2025. See page 3 for summary of business and abbreviations1.
| Summary highlights2 | H1-25 | H1-24 | FY24 | H1-25 | H1-24 | FY24 | |
| Total accounting return (%) | 1.1 | 4.0 | 9.1 | Value gains (£m) | 15.5 | 47.0 | 97.2 |
| EPRA NDV per share (p)3 | 223.7 | 212.3 | 222.3 | Total Property sales (£m)4 | 18.9 | 41.7 | 215.8 |
| EPRA NDV (£m)3 | 725.0 | 687.0 | 719.5 | Residential plots sales5 | 649 | 357 | 2,385 |
| Net loan to portfolio value (%) | 19.0 | 9.8 | 5.4 | Inv. Portfolio value (£m)6 | 319.3 | 231.2 | 297.2 |
| Liquidity (£m) | 59.8 | 154.2 | 192.4 | Inv. Portfolio Grade A (%)7 | 48 | 37 | 45 |
| Financial highlights8 | H1-25 | H1-24 | FY24 | H1-25 | H1-24 | FY24 | |
| Total dividend per share (p)9 | 0.538 | 0.489 | 1.614 | Operating profit (£m) | 7.1 | 21.1 | 74.6 |
| Net debt (£m) | 179.4 | 80.5 | 46.7 | Stat. portfolio value (£m)10 | 908.6 | 772.5 | 821.6 |
| Net assets per share (p) | 215.5 | 200.9 | 213.7 | Net asset value (£m) | 698.3 | 650.0 | 691.7 |
Lynda Shillaw, Chief Executive of Harworth Group, commented: “Our sustained operational momentum is providing a strong platform for future growth and reflects the strength of our execution in progressing our land bank. A key highlight during the period was the timely acquisition of our joint venture partner’s shareholding at Gateway 45, which not only grows our I&L pipeline, but also adds attractive near-term opportunities with the release of HS2 land from Government safeguarding.
“We are advancing the planning status and de-risking the delivery of our land bank, with significant investment in enabling works to open up our consented sites and increase our serviced land capacity by year-end. This, coupled with the submission of a number of significant planning applications totalling 8.1m sq. ft, will add value as they move towards a consent, driving performance into the medium-term.
“Our teams are working hard to convert a strong transaction pipeline, with healthy demand across our I&L land and property portfolio. Whilst transaction timelines remain elongated, as occupier and investor sentiment continues to be impacted by macroeconomic weakness and soft UK growth, letting activity is beginning to crystallise and our de-risked serviced land products across both I&L and Residential remain appealing, with a solid pipeline in the second half of the year.
“We are seeing sustained demand for our residential serviced land, although costs to deliver increased in some instances impacting valuations and the market seems to be softer, an outlook we consider may continue to 2026, particularly with uncertainty around the UK Budget and the timing of further rate cuts. Our I&L portfolio continues to perform well with good momentum and the ability to generate material value.
“Our land bank remains one of our superpowers and with our proven track record in unlocking its embedded value, we remain focussed on identifying and executing those opportunities that optimise returns and drive the business forward to reach our strategic goals of £1bn of EPRA NDV and the growth of our core Investment Portfolio to £0.9bn by the end of 2029.”
Strategic acquisitions underpinning future growth
· Completed acquisitions of 1.2m sq. ft and 2,000 plots, including taking 100% control at Gateway 45 (Leeds) | YAC | I&L | MD via the buyout of our joint venture (‘JV’) partner’s shareholding, bringing an additional c. 0.4m sq. ft of consented I&L space (ownership now up to 0.8m sq. ft).
· Release from safeguarding of HS2 land has benefited 1.2m sq. ft of our portfolio. With Gateway 45 being the biggest beneficiary of land released, this provides momentum to move our near-term plans forward. The site is adjacent to Skelton Grange (Leeds) | YAC | I&L | MD, where we are undertaking enabling works on behalf of Microsoft for its proposed hyperscale data centre.
· New strategic partnership with Church Commissioners for England where we conditionally exchanged on a JV to deliver a significant mixed-use development in West Yorkshire. The JV will deliver c. 1.2m sq. ft of employment space and c. 1,500 Residential plots.
Financial firepower deployed to scale I&L
· Leveraged our balance sheet capacity to undertake strategic acquisitions and advance enabling works at our I&L sites. Available liquidity at period-end was £59.8m with LTV at 19.0% (FY2024: £192.4m, LTV 5.4%), within our self-imposed target of up to 25% during the year.
· Looking towards H2, when the majority of our sales typically close, we have a further 1,593 Residential plots either conditionally exchanged or subject to legal documentation in addition to continuing to recycle capital deployed as we complete asset management activity and evolve our core investment portfolio towards 100% grade A. Using these proceeds, coupled with receipts from deferred consideration on prior period sales, to pay down debt we would expect LTV to come down to within the 10%-15% range by the end of the year.
Significant investment in enabling works builds momentum in pipeline
· 3.3m sq. ft of enabling works were underway at period-end, primarily at the first phase at Wingates (Bolton) | NOW | I&L | MD and at Gascoigne Wood (North Yorkshire) | YAC | I&L | SL, alongside continuing progress on Plot 2 at Skelton Grange, in support of the £53.2m second phase of the sale to Microsoft for its proposed hyperscale data centre, targeted for completion in 2026.
· Completed enabling works at Chatterley Valley (Stoke) | NOW | I&L | MD, Gateway 36 (Barnsley) | YAC | I&L | MD, and Waverley AMP (Rotherham) | YAC | I&L | MD, , positioning the sites ready to deliver up to 2.4m sq. ft of I&L space.
· Practical completion achieved at Droitwich post period-end with the first phase of development at Chatterley Valley expected to start later this year.
EPRA NDV driven by value gains
· Period-end EPRA NDV per share of 223.7p (FY2024: 222.3p) was primarily driven by value gains. Adding paid dividends of 1.125p resulted in a total accounting return (‘TAR’) of 1.1%.
· Value gains of £15.5m comprised £21.7m in revaluation gains across our portfolio, driven by I&L overall, and partially offset by £6.3m in losses on sale, driven by higher site wide costs on a small number of mature Residential Major Developments (‘MD’).
Planning applications totalling 8.1m sq. ft submitted create the potential for medium-term value gains
· Planning applications for c. 1,200 Residential plots and 8.1m sq. ft of I&L space were submitted (HWG share 4.9m sq. ft), including the largest planning application in the North West at Northern Gateway (Greater Manchester) | NOW | I&L | SL). Since June, applications for a further 1.5m sq. ft of I&L space and c. 4,900 Residential plots (HWG share 2,800 plots) have been submitted.
· The land bank has capacity to deliver up to 34.6m sq. ft of I&L space, and 31,636 Residential plots, across the Midlands and the North of England.
Further growth in Grade A quality of highly reversionary I&L Investment Portfolio
· The Investment Portfolio was valued at £319.3m (FY2024: £297.2m), with EPRA vacancy rate reduced to 4.9% (FY2024: 5.6%)
· The sale of a 61,000 sq. ft of secondary I&L asset alongside the 80,000 sq. ft practical completion and letting to Technicut at the AMP (South Yorkshire) | YAC | I&L | IP increased the portfolio to 48% Grade A by area and 66% by value (Dec 2024: 45% by area, 63% by value).
· Leasing activity added £1.0m of headline rental income, achieving 1.9% increase on a like for like basis (2024: 2.4%), with renewals and rent reviews achieving, on average, a 16% uplift to previous passing rents.
· The Investment Portfolio is reversionary, with headline rental income 15% below year-end ERVs, alongside a net initial yield of 5.0% (2024: 4.8%), and a reversionary yield of 6.4% (2024: 6.5%).
Completed 649 Residential plot sales, on track to exceed annual target of 2,000
· Completed the sale of 649 Residential plots, including via a notable number of Planning Promotion Agreements (‘PPAs’), generating fees of £4.0m as revenue in the period. A further 1,593 Residential plots sales were conditionally exchanged or subject to legal documentation at period-end, demonstrating resilience in the demand for our de-risked residential serviced land product, despite headwinds.
Delivering sustainable, innovative and scalable solutions across our land and property portfolio
· In our role as a responsible developer, we have taken a sector leadership position, launching and managing our first registered Biodiversity Gain Habitat Bank at Killamarsh (Sheffield) | YAC | R | SL, where we have sold Biodiversity Net Gain (‘BNG’) units alongside a serviced land sale. This continues to evolve our serviced land offering, issuing biodiversity units to meet our BNG obligations and allocating any surplus units to our other projects or for sale to other developers.
· We have incorporated renewable energy through an innovative green lease structure at our development for Technicut at the AMP, reaching practical completion in the period, and our delivery for communities continues with the recent openings of forest schools at Thoresby and Coalville, and Olive Lane, the local centre at Waverley.
Notes:
(1) All values are Harworth’s share, unless noted otherwise
(2) Represent our Alternative Performance Measures (APMs). A full description of these is set out in Note 2 to the financial statements with a reconciliation between statutory measures and APMs set out in the appendix to the financial statements.
(3) European Public Real Estate Association Net Disposal Value
(4) Total property sales for H1-25 include £10.9m development property sales, £3.0m of Investment Portfolio properties, and £5.0m of Industrial & Logistics land sales and other sales
(5) Residential plot sales for H1-25 includes 149 freehold plot sales and 500 plot sales through Planning Promotion Agreements (PPAs)
(6) The Investment Portfolio represents our primary income generating Industrial & Logistics portfolio. It excludes Strategic Land, Major Developments, Natural Resources, and Agricultural land
(7) Measured by area. Grade A by value is 66%
(8) The financial highlights represent our statutory measures
(9) The Ex-dividend date, Record date and Payment date for the 2025 interim dividend can be found in the Shareholder Information section of this announcement
(10) Statutory portfolio value includes investment properties, development properties, AHFS, occupied properties and investment in joint-ventures, refer to Note 2 to the financial statements
(11) European Public Real Estate Association vacancy rate
(12) Pipeline with a consent or in the planning system
