Leeds property investor TCS says business is recovering as restrictions ease

The Leeds-based business reported EPRA earnings profit of £0.3m for the year ended June 30, 2021, down from £1.7m the previous year.

It also significantly reduced statutory loss before tax of £0.6m, down from a loss of £24.1m the previous year, and statutory loss per share of 1.1p, down from a loss of 45.4p, including a total estimated negative impact of Covid-19 on the results for the year of £6.2m.

TCS took a £1m hit in the property business, primarily down to bad debt. While its CitiPark business took a £4.5m impact due to lost car parking income during the nationwide lockdowns. It's ibis Styles hotel took a hit of £0.7m due to lockdowns and hotel closure.

Edward Ziff, chairman and chief executive of TCS, said: "It has been a challenging year, however I am pleased to see the business recovering since pandemic related restrictions have been eased.

"We have benefited from the decisions taken earlier in the year to accelerate our disposal programme and reduce our net borrowings. As a result, the company is in a stronger financial position to benefit from the ongoing economic recovery.

"I am pleased that our rent collection has remained robust throughout the year. This demonstrates the resilience, quality and diversified nature of our continuing portfolio as well as our collaborative, longstanding and strong relationships with our tenants.

"With people steadily returning to offices and normal life resuming, we are seeing improvements in both our car park and hotel operations."

"Overall, we remain committed to delivering on our accelerated four pillar strategy of: actively managing our assets, maximising available capital, investing in our development pipeline and acquiring and improving investment assets to diversify our portfolio."

The proportion of retail and leisure assets in its portfolio has reduced to 29 per cent from 40 per cent in June 2020, and down from 60 per cent in 2016.

Pure retail now represents only 21 per cent of the total portfolio and of that, 52 per cent is in the resilient Merrion Estate

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