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Commercial Property News
British Land report further solid progress in Q1
Britsh Land, the REIT, said today that it had made good progress in Q1 2010, with LFL income up 1.9% and an increase in the value of the portfolio of 1.4% to £8.7 billion at June 30th.
The Group's occupancy rate increased by 1.2% to 97.8% with around 400,000 sq ft of new lettings signed or put under offer since March.
Group LTV at the end of the quarter was 46%, with net debt of £4.2 billion, which has 11 years on average to maturity and with £2.9 billion of undrawn facilities BL has the firepower for it's development programme and acquisitions.
Chris Grigg, Chief Executive comments: "We have performed well in what has been an important quarter for British Land. Reaching agreement with UBS to develop and occupy a new 700,000 sq ft building is a major step in our investment programme to ensure Broadgate remains the City's premier office location. In addition, we continued to successfully let recently developed office space with around 800,000 sq ft of prime London office lettings in the last 6 months and rental levels significantly higher now than a year ago.
As suggested at the time of our full year results, valuations have risen more slowly in this quarter, reflecting in part a more uncertain economic outlook. While we remain cautious about the near-term outlook, our prime real estate, underpinned by good tenant credit quality and high occupancy, is expected to perform well and we remain confident about the long-term prospects for the business."
The Group's NAV has increased on a LFL basis from £2954 million last year to £4322 million, but when adjusted for deferred taxation, hedges, share options etc the EPRA NAV is up to £4561 million (£3081 million 2009) and the EPRA NAV per share is 515p (361p 2009). A Q1 dividend of 6.5p per share has been declared.
The Group's occupancy rate increased by 1.2% to 97.8% with around 400,000 sq ft of new lettings signed or put under offer since March.
Group LTV at the end of the quarter was 46%, with net debt of £4.2 billion, which has 11 years on average to maturity and with £2.9 billion of undrawn facilities BL has the firepower for it's development programme and acquisitions.
Chris Grigg, Chief Executive comments: "We have performed well in what has been an important quarter for British Land. Reaching agreement with UBS to develop and occupy a new 700,000 sq ft building is a major step in our investment programme to ensure Broadgate remains the City's premier office location. In addition, we continued to successfully let recently developed office space with around 800,000 sq ft of prime London office lettings in the last 6 months and rental levels significantly higher now than a year ago.
As suggested at the time of our full year results, valuations have risen more slowly in this quarter, reflecting in part a more uncertain economic outlook. While we remain cautious about the near-term outlook, our prime real estate, underpinned by good tenant credit quality and high occupancy, is expected to perform well and we remain confident about the long-term prospects for the business."
The Group's NAV has increased on a LFL basis from £2954 million last year to £4322 million, but when adjusted for deferred taxation, hedges, share options etc the EPRA NAV is up to £4561 million (£3081 million 2009) and the EPRA NAV per share is 515p (361p 2009). A Q1 dividend of 6.5p per share has been declared.
Wed, 4th Aug 2010