BE Offices reports 24% rise in turnover as costs hit profits

Serviced office provider BE Offices has posted a 24% increase in turnover to £30.2m in its annual results to the end of 2016.BE Offices is owned by Business Environment Holding. It said that BE’s 16-strong portfolio generated almost £36m in income for the year, a 48% increase on the year before.Four new centres were acquired in June 2016, while one in Threadneedle Street, EC2, was closed for a £2.2m refurbishment.While earnings before tax were steady at £5.8m – which BE said reflected the cost of acquisitions and the refurbishment and investment programmes – costs, together with a valuation impairment, higher interest charges and operational expenses, meant that last year’s pre-tax profit of £9.7m became a £2.8m loss for 2016.BE finance director Simon Rusk: “I am pleased with the group’s operational results for the year under review.“We have managed to maintain EBITDA while having large parts of the portfolio under refurbishment. We incurred significant start-up costs this year in expanding the business, but will see the benefit of this expansion in future years. To this extent, these costs are a long-term investment.”