British Land's NAV, occupancy rise in H1

Published 16th Nov 2010

British Land, one of London's biggest landlords, said it intends to exploit a growing demand-supply imbalance in the London office market, as it booked higher first-half occupancy and net asset value (NAV).

British Land's NAV rose 4.2 percent to 525 pence a share in the six months to September 30, against 504 pence at end-March 2010. In the prior H1 period, its NAV was 372 pence a share, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

"We've had a good start to the year with strong letting activity improving occupancy to 98 percent and driving a further increase in (portfolio) valuation to 8.9 billion pounds ($14.2 billion)," Chief Executive Chris Grigg said in the statement.

"Looking forward, we expect to be able to exploit the growing demand supply imbalance in London offices and to benefit from a growing need from a significant number of retailers to take new space in the best locations," Grigg said.

The company maintained its second-quarter dividend at 6.5 pence, contributing to a total first-half dividend of 13 pence a share, which was unchanged from the previous same period.

The 2.6 percent rise in portfolio value was "broadly balanced between the first and second quarters," Grigg said.

"Overall, the portfolio modestly outperformed the IPD benchmark, driven by the combination of successful office lettings and our portfolio weighting towards prime London office and retail," he said.

The company's underlying first-half pretax profit was 127 million pounds, marginally down on the year earlier's pretax profit of 129 million pounds, which included a 16 million pounds credit provision release.

"The increase in underlying profits, excluding the provision release, was driven by new lettings and lower costs which more than offset the lost income from assets sold during 2009, principally Broadgate."

On November 12, British Land upped its bet on the prospects of London's Square Mile financial district by unveiling a 35 million pounds ($57 million) redevelopment of offices occupied by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Last month, British Land teamed up with Canada's OMERS to develop the 340-million-pounds, 610,000-square-foot Leadenhall Building nearby.

Source: ' Reuters '

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