British Land's NAV goes up 11.3% |
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Fri, 25 Nov 2005 14:35
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LONDON: Britain's second largest property company British Land Co. Plc. posted an 11.3 per cent increase in its net assets value and gave a positive outlook as it found better prospects for office space in the London financial district, out-of-town shopping centres and retail warehouses.
The company said its diluted net asset value rose to 1,256 pence per share at the end of the second half on 30 September from 1,128 pence at the end of March. Underlying pre-tax profit for the period before gains on asset disposals and revaluation rose by 42 per cent to 102 million pounds.
It is taking up construction of 822,000 sq.ft. new office space comprising two new 35-storey towers, which will be ready by 2008. Its City of London office space accounts for 28 per cent of its portfolio.
Chief Executive Stephen Hester said the outlook for rents in the City is good, and the huge exposure to out-of-town shopping centres in the company's retail assets had insulated it from the retail sector slowdown.
The company is paying an interim dividend of 5.2 pence a share, up 8.3 per cent on a year earlier.
Hester announced that the company is planning to sell its Cornwall Terrace headquarters in London and its oldest landholding at Plantation Place in the City. The Cornwall Terrace property is too small for its extended operations now, Hester disclosed. The company will have its new headquarters in Nihol, north of Oxford Street. Cornwall Terrace will fetch a price of 40 million pounds.
Sources said British Land is in talks to sell its stake in CityPoint, a skyscraper in the City of London, to Tishman Speyer, a US developer, while plans are on the anvil to sell its residential property portfolio worth 300 million pounds to Insight Investment, which is part of HBOS.
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