17th May 2018 08:40
LONDON (Alliance News) - The British Land Co PLC said on Thursday that despite challenging market conditions, annual profit rose substantially amid growing revenue and a swing to profit on property valuation movements.
For the year to the end of March, the FTSE 100-listed real estate investment trust reported pretax profit of GBP501 million, more than doubling from GBP195 million the year before. This was after it recorded a GBP202 million gain from the revaluation of properties, swinging from a loss of GBP144 million in the prior year.
Underlying profit, which adjusts for property revaluations, gains and losses on investment and trading property disposals, and changes in the fair value of financial instruments and associated close out costs, dipped to GBP380 million from GBP390 million.
Revenue grew considerably to GBP639 million from GBP589 million the year before.
EPRA net asset value per share rose by 5.7% to 967 pence from 915p the prior year, reflecting a portfolio valuation gain of 2.2% and the impact of British Land's GBP300 million share buyback programme announced in July 2017.
In line with its own expectations the year before, British Land declared a final dividend of 7.52 pence per share, taking its total payout for the year to 30.08p, a 3.0% rise from 29.20p the year before. For the year ahead, the group proposes to pay a dividend of 31.00p, another 3.0% rise.
"This has been another good year for British Land. Our financial performance has been robust following significant asset sales and we have made further strategic and operational progress. Leasing activity has been strong across our business. In London Offices, our unique campus offering is driving demand for our space, and we successfully launched Storey, our flexible workspace offer," said Chief Executive Chris Grigg.
"Looking forward, we are mindful of the uncertainties. In retail, market conditions are likely to remain challenging. In offices, demand for our space is healthy, with a range of businesses continuing to commit to London and the supply of high quality new space relatively constrained in the short term," Grigg added.
Shares in British Land were up 2.1% at 695.20 pence on Thursday.
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