13th Nov 2019 08:19
(Alliance News) - British Land Co PLC on Wednesday said interim performance was "resilient" despite a sharply widened loss amid a "challenging" retail environment and an unpredictable UK political backdrop.
The FTSE 100-listed property development and investment company's pretax loss for the six months to the end of September widened to GBP440 million from GBP42 million a year prior, as revenue sunk 34% to GBP328 million from GBP499 million.
The London-headquartered company explained this wider loss primarily reflects an increase in the downward valuation movement on properties of GBP184 million, and an increase in the capital and other income loss from joint ventures and funds of GBP128 million.
Underlying profit - which excludes the valuation movement on investment and trading properties, fair value movements on financial instruments and capital financing costs - was GBP158 million in the first half, down 9.7% from GBP175 million delivered a year ago.
The portfolio value was down 4.3% overall to GBP11.72 billion, with occupancy reducing to 96.8% on September 30 from 97.2% as at the end of March.
Despite that, British Land upped its interim payout by 3.0% to 15.97 pence a share from 15.50p it paid a year before.
"Looking forward, we expect our markets to remain uneven, but we have kept debt levels low, our balance sheet is strong and flexible and we have a broad spread of expertise across our business," said Chief Executive Chris Grigg.
"In London, we expect the market to remain good, with supply relatively constrained and high quality space, in well-connected, vibrant parts of town continuing to attract demand from a range of businesses," added Grigg.
British Land shares were trading 2.0% lower in London on Wednesday morning at 563.84p each.
By Evelina Grecenko; [email protected]
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