Profits rise at ‘well-positioned’ British Land

The company said it was well positioned to “capture upside” in both income and capital when the economy improves.

British Land booked a 4.2 per cent rise in first-half EPRA NAV to 591p a share, while its underlying pre-tax profit rose 3.9 per cent at £132m ($209.8m).

EPRA, the European Public Real Estate Association, provides a number of reporting benchmarks for property companies.

The blue-chip developer’s total portfolio value was up 2.2 per cent at the half-year mark to £10.2bn, with office and retail valuations rising, respectively, 5.3 per cent and 0.7 pe rcent.

“In the current challenging economic environment, our results demonstrate the quality of our portfolio underlined by the actions we’ve taken to focus on growing both income and capital,” said chief executive Chris Grigg.

“We are well positioned for today but also have the capacity to capture upside when the economy improves,” Grigg said in the results statement.

British Land’s quarterly dividend was flat at 6.5p. The company is the joint owner of the Meadowhall shopping centre, near Sheffield.