West Hamilton Holdings Ltd achieved its best ever annual operating income and jacked up its dividend by 50 per cent.But the company booked a net loss of $8.8 million because of a $10 million writedown of the value of its property. West Hamilton owns a commercial property and a parking lot for more than 300 vehicles off Pitts Bay Road and approved building plans to develop four more commercial buildings on a 2.1-acre site.Operating income for the year ended September 30 totalled $1.7 million, up from $1.4 million a year ago.Total revenue for the period was $3.2 million, just beating 2018’s $3.1 million, and operating expenses before interest were $900,000, in line with last year.West Hamilton generated cash from operations of $2.3 million which was used for building renovations, the partial repayment of a bank loan facility and loan interest for the year. During 2019 the company invested $200,000 in the maintenance and upgrade of its property assets.The board approved a dividend of 15 cents per share, to be paid on January 30, 2020 to shareholders of record on January 6, 2020. The increase from ten cents a year earlier was the result of improved free cashflow, the company said.A change in the accounting standards, whereby the value of the company’s property assets are now valued at fair value as opposed to depreciated cost basis, resulted in the property value writedown.West Hamilton said: “The fair value of the company’s property assets was determined by an independent property valuer. “For the year ended September 30, 2018 the company has determined that the fair value was $54.3 million and for the year ended September 30, 2019 the company has determined that the fair value was $44 million.“As a result of the change in accounting standard and the corresponding requirement to reflect a reduction in fair value of our property assets, the company has recorded a loss for the year ended September 30, 2019 of $8.8 million.”This compared to a net loss of $3.7 million in 2018.Michael Collier, chairman of West Hamilton, said it had been a successful year for the company.“We continue to have high occupancy rates at all our property assets and benefit from our prime location in Hamilton,” Mr Collier said. “This is reflected in our strong financial results, in particular our cash generation, and the Board was delighted to recommend an increase to the Company’s dividend by 50 per cent.”“The commercial property market in Bermuda remains challenging and as such the directors have taken the decision that it would not be prudent to look to further develop our property assets at this stage. However, we remain ready to move forward as and when the market dynamics change for the positive.”The company reported shareholders’ equity as at September 30 of $34.8 million, down from $43.6 million a year earlier.Current assets, which include cash and other assets that could readily be converted into cash, totalled $2 million as at September 30, compared with $1.7 million a year earlier.Book value per share at September 30, 2019 was $11.96, down from $14.98 12 months earlier. Shares of West Hamilton last traded at $3.75 on the Bermuda Stock Exchange.