Land Securities nearly halves FY losses

(Sharecast News) - Commercial properties business Land Securities said on Friday that losses had nearly halved in the twelve months ended 31 March amid continued operational strength, as values for best assets began to stabilise. Land Securities said pre-tax losses had narrowed from £622.0m to £341.0m as roughly 60% of its portfolio was "effectively stable in value" throughout the second half. EPRA earnings slipped from £393.0m to £371.0m, in line with guidance, as occupancy growth and 2.8% like-for-like income growth offset a rise in interest costs and the impact of asset disposals.

The FTSE 250-listed group also declared a total dividend of 39.6p per share, up 2.6% year-on-year, in line with guidance of "low single-digit percentage growth".

Chief executive Mark Allan said: "Our continued operational outperformance, with rising occupancy and positive rental uplifts in retail and London, is driving robust like-for-like rental income growth and demonstrates the importance of owning and operating the best-in-class real estate. Around 80% of our portfolio is now invested in twelve places with significant scarcity value, where our competitive advantages in shaping and curating these places mean we expect like-for-like rents to continue to grow.

"Following a reset of values over the past two years driven by rising interest rates, the stabilisation in rates and evidence of continued rental growth is starting to attract increased investor interest for the best assets. Around 60% of our portfolio already showed stable values in the second half and overall yields were largely stable in the final quarter, pointing to a positive outlook for our overall return on equity."

As of 0955 BST, Land Securities shares were down 2.03% at 676.0p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com