Shore Capital hails promising outlook for Segro

(Sharecast News) - Shore Capital has kept a 'buy' rating for Segro after strong results from the industrial real estate group on Friday, highlighting the company's "impressive" rental growth and the stock's attractive investment case. Full-year results were consistent with Shore Capital's forecasts, with like-for-like rent rolls up 6.0% and adjusted pre-tax profits up 8.3%, while both earnings per share and the dividend up 6.1%.

Net tangible assets (NTA) per share improved by 2.0% to 925p, helped by the stabilisation of yields and "impressive estimated rental value growth of 3.1%", the broker said.

Meanwhile, Segro's new joint venture with Pure Data Centres to develop a £1bn 56MW data centre in London reflects the company's commitment to "one of the biggest development programmes in the sector with significant potential for value creation", Shore Capital said.

"Some £62m of potential new rent is deliverable from the current pipeline of on-site and near-term developments while a further potential £502m could also be delivered from the future pipeline and current landbank options giving significant upside," the broker said.

"The progressive capture of rental reversion, vacancy and run-off of rent-free periods provides attractive upside in the rent roll in due course, potentially adding a further £152m. Collectively, when combined with the rent available from current/future development, this presents an attractive opportunity for a material uplift in total contracted rent over the medium-term."

The stock trades at 0.82 times NTA on Shore Capital's 2026 forecasts, offering "strong potential for recovery and outperformance".

Shares were 1.6% higher at 810.8p by 1313 GMT.