The Charter Hall Group (ASX: CHC) share price took off this morning after the company released its earnings for the first half of financial year 2022.
At the time of writing, the Charter Hall share price is $16.35, 2.32% higher than its previous close.
However, that's a far cry from the stock's intra-day high of $17.10 – representing a 7% gain.
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Charter Hall share price surges as profits almost triple
- Revenue of $566.1 million – a 127% increase on that of the first half of financial year 2021
- Statutory profit after tax of $517.8 million – 198% more than the prior period's $173.2 million profit
- Operating earnings of $263.9 million – a 104% increase
- Operating earnings per share (EPS) of 56.6 cents
- As previously announced, the company will pay an interim dividend and distribution totalling 19.66 cents per share on 28 February
As of the end of the first half, Charter Hall boasted $79.5 billion of funds under management, with $61.3 billion of property funds under management.
That represents $27.2 billion – or 52% – funds under management growth for the period.
Additionally, the company's property investments grew by 18% – or $432 million – to $2.85 billion, delivering a 25.5% return.
Its portfolio occupancy ended the period at 97.4% and its weighted average lease expiry was 8.6 years.
Meanwhile, the Charter Hall Property Trust Group brought in $18.4 million of revenue – up from $3.3 million – and a statutory profit after tax of $307.5 million – up from 104.7 million.
During the half, Charter Hall underwent $6.8 billion of transaction activity, made up of more than 60 transactions with 18 active funds and partnerships. It also completed more than $11 billion of sale and leaseback transitions.
What else happened in the half?
Charter Hall's development pipeline grew 50% to $13.2 billion over the last 6 months. Over the last 12 months, its development completions totalled $1.2 billion.
It completed $1.3 billion of sustainable finance transitions last half and is on track to power all operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025.
It also created a new partnership with Paradice Investment Management, investing in 50% of the entity's shares.
The company's managing director and CEO, David Harrison noted the partnership boasts good growth opportunities.
What did management say?
Harrison commented on the company's earnings for the half, saying:
The current period has seen us experience strong inflows across our strategies, with $2.8 billion of gross equity allotted. We've also successfully deployed $5.4 billion in acquisitions across 18 funds and partnerships, a record 6-month period.
Importantly, our development pipeline continues to grow and now stands at $13.2 billion, providing valuable opportunities to deploy our investment capacity into new product.
With investment capacity of $6.7 billion across the platform, continued strong demand from capital partners to deploy equity, a growing development pipeline and significant retained earnings, we continue to see a strong pathway of growth for the group.
What's next?
Charter Hall updated its financial year 2022 guidance today.
Previously, it aimed to provide post-tax operating EPS growth of at least 105 cents.
Today, it changed that outlook to post-tax EPS of no less than 112 cents.
Its distribution per share guidance of 6% growth has remained the same.
Charter Hall share price snapshot
2022 has proven rough on the Charter Hall share price.
It is currently 21% lower than it was at the start of this year. Though, it's still 34% higher than it was this time last year.
