In an ASX announcement on Thursday, the fund manager reported that statutory earnings after tax stood at $61.1 million as property valuations stabilised, up from a $190 million loss in the prior corresponding period.
Meanwhile, group funds under management (FUM) increased $2.5 billion to $83.4 billion, consisting of $66.4 of property FUM while listed equities at Paradice Investment Management (PIM) grew to $17 billion.
In the case of property FUM, Charter Hall said the $900 million increase was driven by acquisitions of $2.2 billion and capex and development investment of $1 billion, partially offset by devaluations of $300 million and divestments of $2 billion.
Moreover the group’s $1.6 billion of gross equity inflows during the half comprised inflows of $451 million in wholesale pooled funds, $1 billion in wholesale partnerships and $102 million in direct managed funds.
David Harrison, managing director and group chief executive at Charter Hall, said the group’s investment strategies are poised to deliver attractive growth in earnings and asset values.
“Our investment management and asset services platform is performing strongly, whilst we have retained strong investor relationships during recent years,” Harrison said.
“We expect investor customers to continue to be more constructive toward deployment of new capital invested in the platform.
“This half has seen acquisitions of $2.2 billion, which significantly exceeds the $1.7 billion in acquisitions over the 12 months in FY24.”
For the period ending 31 December 2024, the property investment portfolio value was $2.8 billion, some 4 per cent of the group’s property platform of approximately $66.4 billion. Its earnings resilience, the fund manager said, remains a key strength.
According to Charter Hall, no single asset represents more than 6 per cent of portfolio investments. Government covenants were the largest tenant exposure at approximately 25 per cent of portfolio income.
Moreover, the company said that development completions had totalled $800 million in the 12 months to 31 December.
“Notwithstanding completions, the pipeline continues to be restocked and is currently $13.3 billion, a $700 million increase over the half. There are currently $5.3 billion in committed developments, with 73 per cent of committed office developments pre-leased and 91 per cent of committed industrial and logistics developments pre-leased,” Charter Hall said.
Looking ahead, Harrison said: “We see current market pricing as offering attractive long-term returns for stabilised core real estate products and our investment strategies.
“It is our expectation that capital deployment will accelerate to take advantage of market conditions and typically accelerates further as the upward cycle gathers pace.”
The CEO added that, based on no “material change” in current market conditions, FY24–25 earnings guidance has been upgraded to 81 cents per security for post-tax operating earnings per security, up from the previously communicated 79 cents per security.
This represents 6.9 per cent growth over FY23–24.
