Raven Mount, the AIM-listed property company chaired by Anton Bilton, sunk into the red in the first half of the year.
The company made a pretax loss of £3.9m, compared with a profit of £0.6m in the first half of last year, which caused a 5% drop in net asset value to 71p a share.
Bilton blamed the loss on ‘the substantial costs of establishing our two new businesses in Russia and the UK and in concluding the final few chapters in the wind down of the Swan Hill projects’, adding: ‘It is frustrating that these final developments have not led to a profit but equally it is pleasing that by the end of this year we will have moved on through that process and can begin to focus energy on our new businesses.’
In Russia Raven Mount is the fund manager to another AIM-listed company Raven Russia, which has 18 development and investment projects under management costing $1.9bn (£950m).
‘Despite the high costs associated with establishing this business we remain very excited by the prospects for this portfolio that has been assembled at an average expected yield of 13% and expect to see significant growth in its value as yields begin to align with those in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic at around 7.5%,’ said Bilton.
In the UK Raven Mount has an assisted living community business, Audley Court.
‘The world is now a different place to what it was only six weeks ago and we are pleased that our cautious approach over the last two years has provided us with a lowly geared balance sheet and a strong platform for future growth,’ said Bilton.
‘I look forward to the next six months with a combination of excitement that we are prepared and trepidation as to where the economy may go.’
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