No recommendation
No news or research item is a personal recommendation to deal. Hargreaves Lansdown may not share ShareCast's (powered by Digital Look) views.
(Sharecast News) - Harworth Group said in an update on Monday that demand for its industrial and logistics land remained resilient, as it continued to progress sales and lettings despite softer residential markets and longer transaction timelines.
The FTSE 250 regeneration and strategic land specialist said it had a record four million square feet of development-ready industrial and logistics land available for near-term delivery, with 1.8m square feet of letting and land sale negotiations in progress, up from 1.6m sq ft at the end of 2025.
Harworth also said it had a 15.2m sq ft pipeline of next-generation industrial and logistics sites positioned to deliver Grade A space to the market and to its investment portfolio.
It had conditionally exchanged on land capable of delivering about 500,000 square feet, including Plot 2 at Skelton Grange, where it expected a 53.2m payment on delivery to Microsoft.
In residential, Harworth said it had completed on 155 plots, with a further 900 plots conditionally exchanged or in legals.
The company said its overall land bank stood at 35 million square feet of industrial and logistics space, of which 75% was consented or in the planning system, and 29,386 residential plots, of which 46% were consented or in planning.
Liquidity at the end of the first quarter was 117.3m, while loan-to-value stood at 17.9%, below the group's 25% through-the-year target.
Chief executive Lynda Shillaw said Harworth continued to see an increase in its pipeline of occupier sales and lettings, although residential softness and protracted industrial and logistics transaction timelines had persisted amid geopolitical, fiscal and political pressures.
"We are starting to see some supply-chain cost inflation as a result of the war in the Middle East - largely from higher fuel costs affecting civils and material production, and we are focused on managing any impact and progressing our 35m sq ft pipeline to drive long term value," she said.
Shillaw said demand was strongest at strategically positioned sites where planning and infrastructure were secured or well defined, adding that land at scale and power-enabled land remained critical for sectors including advanced manufacturing, defence, energy and data infrastructure.
Separately, Harworth announced the appointment of Tony Quinlan as an independent non-executive director with effect from 1 June.
Quinlan, the former chief executive of Laird and former finance director of Drax, is currently chair of NextEnergy Solar Fund and senior independent director at Costain and Hill & Smith.
At 0904 BST, shares in Harworth Group were down 0.47% at 127.6p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
See latest RNS on Investegate