Two adjacent properties on Pitts Bay Road in Pembroke were sold for a combined $23 million, a filing with the Bermuda Stock Exchange reveals.

West Hamilton Holdings Limited, the BSX-listed property holding company, agreed the sale of the Belvedere Building and the Belvedere Place parking lot next door last March.

The deal for the properties at 69 and 71 Pitts Bay Road completed in November.

Details of the transaction are included in the notes to WHHL’s audited financial statements for the period ending September 30, 2023, which were filed with the BSX.

When the deal was agreed, WHHL was the parent company of West Hamilton Ltd and Belvedere Place A Ltd.

As part of the agreement with purchaser Princess West Ltd that resulted in the sale of the two properties, WHL conveyed them to BPL, which then merged with PWL.

The surviving entities after the merger are WHL as the operating company and WHHL as the parent company.

In its annual report to shareholders, filed with the BSX, the parent company West Hamilton said it had earned net operating income for the year ended September 30, 2023 of $1,216,380 (2022: $1,077,923).

Total revenue for the year was $3,003,395 (2022: $3,072,418). West Hamilton said the marginal decrease was caused by lower occupancy levels in the Belvedere Building.

During the year, it said, the parking garage was fully occupied and as in previous years had a long waiting list.

The company said the Belvedere Residences remained fully occupied with tenants on long-term leases.

Operating expenses decreased by 46 per cent owing to a lower depreciation charge.

The decrease is net of one-off legal expenses of $264,734 relating to the sale of 69 and 71 Pitts Bay Road, West Hamilton said.

Interest expense increased to more than double the amount paid in 2022 due to significantly higher interest rates.

The company said it had generated free cash of $1,825,566, which was used mainly to fund interest expense and pay down bank debt.

The income per share was $0.91 for the year compared with a loss per share of $1.76 in 2022.

The company said book value per share had increased by 8.1 per cent to $12.03 per share because of a $1.42 million increase in the valuation of the company’s properties and the company’s net income of $1.17 million.

West Hamilton reported total shareholders’ equity as at September 30 of $35 million (September 30 2022: $32.5 million), an increase of $2.5 million.

Current assets, which include cash and other assets that could readily be converted into cash, totalled $2,047,350 as at September 30 2023 compared with $1,686,449 as at September 30 2022, the company said.

Total assets amounted to $44.1 million compared with $42.3 million at the end of 2022.

West Hamilton said net proceeds from the sale of the two Pitts Bay Road properties were used to reduce the company’s bank debt by $3.1 million and a total dividend of $6.75 per share — comprising the normal annual dividend of $0.50 per share and a $6.25 special dividend per share — was paid to shareholders on November 19.

The company said it now had one remaining property asset, The Belvedere Residences, a mixed-use building located at 71A Pitts Bay Road.

That building houses nine executive condominiums, two of which have been sold, a penthouse office suite and two ground floors occupied by a gymnasium.

Last September, the company said, the Belvedere Residences was valued by an independent property appraiser to be worth $19 million.

The company’s bank debt after the $3.1 million repayment was approximately $5.2 million, it said.

According to a legal advertisement placed in The Royal Gazette in January 2019, Princess West Ltd — the owner of 69 and 71 Pitts Bay Road — was formed by Mitchell Green Private Trust Company as trustee of the Mitchell Green Family Trust.

The Mitchell Green Private Trust Company agent is Berco Limited, which is the operating company of the Green family, who own the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club.