The chief executive of regeneration specialist Harworth Group is preparing to step down after a decade running the business.
Owen Michaelson will step down at the end of the year. He established the business from UK Coal’s real estate activities back in 2010, relisting it on the London Stock Exchange in 2015.
Michaelson said: “When I started out on this journey, I always believed that the role of master developer could be delivered at scale successfully by the private sector. We have proven the business model and it is now time for a new leader to take the business forward to the next stage in its journey.”
Alastair Lyons, the company’s non-executive chairman, said: “In large part Harworth owes its existence to Owen. He seized the regeneration potential of the former UK Coal collieries and, in doing so, created a business that is now a leader in its field, transforming former industrial sites and urban edge extensions into new homes and employment areas across the breadth of the North of England and the Midlands.”
Separately, the company has announced is 2019 results, in which it reported a fall in profit and returns.
Profit dropped by more than a quarter year-on-year to £24.3m in 2019, while the company delivered a total return of 7.8%, down from 13.3% in 2018.
Michaelson said the company’s pipeline now stands at 29,596 residential plots and 24.4m sq ft of commercial space, its highest point since re-listing on the public markets five years ago.
He added: “Notwithstanding this progress, the returns from large-scale sites like ours are not linear and this has been seen in the lower total return in 2019, primarily as a result of the planning headwinds at a local authority level that we reported through our interim results.
“Also as previously indicated, whilst we continue to target long-term market-leading returns, our current trading plans suggest that our historic site portfolio will deliver lower returns in the near term whilst our new sites move through the development cycle, exacerbated by the continued local political headwinds which will take some time to unwind.”
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