BlackWall rides higher on WOTSO roll-out
Sydney-based fund manager BlackWall has posted a bumper profit for 2018, up 125 per cent to $8 million, boosted by windfall performance fees and the expansion of its co-working hub business, WOTSO.
Revenue rose 49 per cent to almost $26 million after the property trust’s total fee haul was boosted by a $7.9 million contribution courtesy of a Pyrmont Bridge Road commercial property in Sydney.
The 14,500-square-metre technology and media hub was refurbished and leased up, generating a big uplift in revaluation and delivering performance fees.
That result is well ahead of the $2.5 million average annual performance and transaction fees booked since listing in 2012.
Meanwhile, earnings from the WOTSO business, which has expanded overseas and locally into a Westfield shopping centre, rose from $6.1 million to $8.5 million.
The business has 4900 desks across its facilities. With the opening of new facilities – including a tie-up with government-backed Malaysian developer UEM Sunrise to roll-out sites in Singapore and Malaysia – that portfolio will grow to 6700 desks by next year.
More revenue growth looms
As it matures, the portfolio will be capable of generating about $30 million in revenue, chief executive Stuart Brown told The Australian Financial Review.
“The bulk of the sites we’ve got are relatively young,” he said. “There is a lot more revenue growth to go. We will get to that $30 million of turnover without a big expenditure on capital.”
Total dividends rose from 3.6¢ to 4¢
Still to come in the current year are further fees that BlackWall expects to collect progressively from the sale of Bakehouse Quarter at North Strathfield in Sydney’s inner west for $380 million to the Yuhu Group.
BlackWall expects to pick up as much as $15 million in option extension fees from Yuhu.
As the sale is finalised next year, a significant portion of the proceeds will be rolled into the BlackWall Property Trust, a listed fund managed by the BlackWall platform. That is expected to add more than $100 million of cash to the property trust’s balance sheet.
