Liverpool shopping centres giant Land Securities makes strong progress
Land Securities, the UK’s biggest landlord, reported a 14.8% increase in pre-tax profits of £1.23bn for the year to March 31 today.
The group, which owns Liverpool’s St John’s and Clayton Square shopping centres, said rental values rose 4.7% across its total like-for-like portfolio since March 2010.
It also reduced empty units across its portfolio on a like-for-like basis from 5.3% last year to 4.3%.
And it completed disposals worth £687m during the year at an average of 12.7% above the March 2010 valuations.
Major deals include an agreement with discount retail chain Primark for 40,100 sq m of space in five centres around the UK, and a commitment from the John Lewis group for ‘at home’ shops in Chester and Exeter.
The Chester development, which will be the first ‘at home’ shop in the North of England, includes 5,500 sq m of space over two floors at Land Securities’ Greyhound Retail Park, due to open this autumn.
Chief executive Francis Salway said: “At the end of an energetic 12 months I can report that the group has built strong momentum behind its plans for growth.
“While our two core markets are developing at different speeds, we are well placed to address the opportunities we see ahead in both areas.
“In London we are developing schemes to meet an anticipated under-supply of new office floor space. In retail our focus covers both a small number of development projects that are grounded on pre-lettings, and the recycling of capital through purchases and sales to ensure that our portfolio is well matched to emerging patterns of demand from retailers.”
He described the year as one of “continued recovery” and “strong progress” by Land Securities.
Liverpool stockbroker Panmure Gordon agreed, saying: “Very strong final results comfortably exceeded our forecasts, while both the retail and London portfolios saw strong valuation growth of 8.5% and 10.8% respectively.
“Today’s results are very encouraging, and we will review our forecasts. Our target (share) price increases from 732p to 825p, which suggests 10% from last night’s close, plus an additional 4% dividend yield, but that is not quite enough to warrant a clear conviction buy and we stay comfortable ‘holders’.”
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