16th May 2016 06:23
LONDON (Alliance News) - British Land Co PLC on Monday said its current committed development pipeline is "modest", but said there were significant opportunities across its portfolio, as it posted a slip in full-year pretax profit on lower valuation gains.
The FTSE 100-listed property developer reported a pretax profit of GBP1.33 billion for its financial year that ended March 31, down from GBP1.79 billion a year earlier, despite revenue rising to GBP590.0 million from GBP556.0 million.
British Land said this was "primarily due to a reduced level of property valuation movement reflecting the slowdown in yield compression and the recent increase in stamp duty on commercial property". For the recently ended financial year, British Land's valuation movement was a positive GBP616.0 million, down from a positive GBP884.0 million the year earlier.
British Land's EPRA net asset value per share rose, however, to 919.0 pence, from 829.00p a year earlier, as the portfolio valuation increased by 6.7% to GBP14.65 billion.
British Land said it will pay a final dividend for the last year of 7.09p, bringing the total for the year to 28.40p, up from 27.70p a year earlier. It intends to raise the dividend for the first quarter of the current year by 3.0% to 7.30p.
The company's development pipeline increased from 1.5 million square feet in March 2015 to 2.0 million square feet in March 2016.
"Looking forward, we remain confident in the underlying strength of the business despite continued global macro uncertainty and the potentially adverse impact of a vote for the UK to leave the European Union. Our business is resilient: our portfolio is modern, nearly fully let to quality occupiers on long leases; and our finances are strong with moderate loan-to-value ratio, low costs and long dated financing from a wide range of sources," British Land said in a statement.
Our current committed development pipeline is modest, but we have built optionality into our future pipeline so we can exploit its potential when the time is right," British Land added.
By Hannah Boland; [email protected]; @Hannaheboland
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
British Land