Parents, do you love and value your kids? Well you're not alone, corporate Australia does too.
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The country's largest ASX-listed childcare centre owner, Folkestone Education Trust, has been busy proving toddlers in their childcare centres have good monetary value as well as being, uhm, cute!
It reported Tuesday a 16 per cent rise in profits over six months to December last year, declaring a statutory profit of $69.1 million up from $59.5 million the corresponding previous period.
The childcare centre landlord has also been busy proving that the nightmare days of the collapse of ABC Learning under founder Eddy Groves are well behind the sector.
With a total of 402 properties in trust, it is just one quarter the size of its earlier, failed, counterpart while producing similar profits, highlighting the sector's maturity.
The fund reported it had increased its development pipeline of childcare centres to 22 with a total value of $121.8 million.
"One development property was completed and commenced operations during the half year with a completion value of $9.3 million," it said.
The group's entire portfolio was valued at more than $792 million.
Over the six month period, Folkestone settled on two existing centres in NSW and Queensland and on six development sites.
It sold one property for $1.9 million on a yield of 7.8 per cent.
Market rent reviews continue to proved an extra boost to Folkestone's annual rent growth, Shaw and Partners said in a note to clients.
Rent reviews and renewals gave the group a 4.9 per cent uplift and extended the portfolio's WALE (weighted average lease expiry) to 8.5 years.
Shaw and Partners said it was a "clean result with no obvious surprises."
"While acquisitions also remain a potential growth driver, the market remains competitive, with 'cheap' opportunities harder to find - (thankfully) management remain disciplined in their approach," analysts said.
Gearing was up slightly to 27.4 per cent from 26.6 per cent midway through 2016 but still below management's target 30-40 per cent range.
Folkestone will return a 7.1 cent distribution per unit to investors, an increase of 6 per cent and a result in line with the annual financial year forecast of 14.2 cents per unit.
