National Storage not counting on Abacus for joint operation

National Storage has turned in a steady performance but has hosed down the prospects of a tie-up with rival Abacus Property.

National Storage’s Andrew Catsoulis. Picture: Steve Pohlner.

National Storage has turned in a steady performance in a tough trading environment but has hosed down the prospects of a tie-up with rival Abacus Property Group, saying it had not heard from its rival.

National Storage managing director Andrew Catsoulis said Abacus had been on his company’s register for about six months and held a stake of about 3.4 per cent, but he was focused on growing his own operation.

“I can’t control who chooses to invest,” he said.

National Storage flagged further growth of its 168-strong network across Australasia after turning in a 21 per cent jump in underlying earnings to $62.4 million, which it backed with two raisings last year.

The group is the largest self-storage provider with a near $2 billion empire and snapped up 35 centres and launched four new projects last year, adding $400m worth of sites.

Mr Catsoulis said the result was in line with guidance and the group would grow underlying earnings per security by greater than 4 per cent this year.

Despite challenging economic conditions in some areas, the company said it had continued to grow. The company had organic occupancy growth of 1 per cent in both Australia and New Zealand, taking its Australian portfolio occupancy to 81.4 per cent and NZ to 85.7 per cent.

The company said there was significant capacity in its portfolio, with about 100,000sq m available before it reaches a stabilised occupancy of 90 per cent, which could generate up to $25m of additional revenue.

Already this financial year the company has struck deals over eight centres worth more than $126m. The company also has about $100m of acquisition opportunities under review.

The group indicated it would accelerate its development pipeline of 13 projects. Mr Catsoulis said the company was “continuously reviewing” opportunities and cited work with partners including APSF, the Bryan Family Group and Parsons.

Macquarie said underlying growth was below guidance with revenue on like-for-like centres up 1 per cent from a year ago, below the group’s guidance range of 3-4 per cent growth.

The company blamed weakness in the residential market, but the analyst said “underlying growth” remained elusive as the shares edged up 0.2c to $1.885.