Managed space offices provider Stonemartin has halved its full-year pretax loss on higher sales as it made good progress in increasing occupancy.

The company, which runs the IoD hub in Birmingham city centre, said it had benefited from an "exceptionally good performance" in the conferencing business.

However, the company said the proposed sale of the Limited Partnership vehicle, which owns three of the four buildings Stonemartin operates, adversely impacted business.

The company said its pretax loss narrowed to £547,000 from £1.3 million in the year to March 31, while turnover rose to £11.7 million from £9.4 million last year.

Stonemartin said it now aims to maximise profits from existing buildings and secure funding for the acquisition of three in Newcastle, Leeds and Edinburgh.

The company said its Birmingham site, in Victoria Square, had maintained strong occupancy throughout the financial year, peaking at 93 per cent, although one customer left on March 31 to take the levels down.

In Birmingham, actual occupancy levels were running at 85 per cent, lower than the contracted 89 per cent.

But the site was higher than Manchester, which had 76 per cent actual occupancy and Reading with 68 per cent.

Colin Peacock, managing director of Stonemartin, said: "We have made good progress in increasing occupancy and have benefited from an exceptionally good performance in the conferencing business in all the buildings.

"This progress has been achieved despite the new challenges announced on April 2 resulting from the decision taken by the Limited Partnership, to capitalise on the current strength of the property market and seek a buyer for the LP vehicle which owns these buildings.

"For the avoidance of doubt, our building management agreements will remain in place and from our perspective, the only change will be the identity of the owner and not the terms upon which we operate the buildings.

"We will provide an update in respect of the sale of the LP vehicle and the funding arrangements for the new buildings at the company's AGM on August 2."