British Land increases asset value

Property investor British Land posted a rise in first-quarter net asset value on the back of its £1.1bn development programme, and said it expected acquisitions to drive income and value returns.

By The Newsroom

Published 5th Aug 2011, 07:00 BST

The first-quarter net asset value was 583p, from 515p a share a year earlier, and 567p at December 31, 2010. .

Underlying pretax profit was £65m from £64m a year ago.

Chris Grigg, chief executive of the company, which has a 50 per cent stake in Meadowhall, Sheffield, said: “We’ve had an active and positive start to the year. Our focus on high quality retail and London offices continues to drive strong valuation and improvement in rental values.”

The UK’s second largest real estate investment trust by market capitalisation saw its portfolio value rise 1.5 percent to £9.9bn during the quarter, with office values up 3.7 per cent and retail up 0.4 per cent.

Occupancy across the company’s London-centric office folio was 97.8 percent, while in its retail book occupancy was 98.7 percent.

The company will be paying an unchanged first-quarter dividend of 6.5p.