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Great Portland Estates PLC on Thursday said it swung to an annual profit as it registered a rise in portfolio value and a record year for leasing.
The London-based property developer and investor swung to a pretax profit of £166.7 million in the year ended March 31, from a loss of £202.0 million the previous year.
Its portfolio value rose 6.1% against the previous year, which was ‘well ahead’ of its central London benchmarks, the company explained. Its office valuation was up 7.9% against the year prior but its development properties soared 49%.
The total property return for the year was 9.4%, compared to the central London MSCI annual index's figure of 7.0%. This outperformance was driven by its recently completed development schemes and its record leasing year.
Great Portland Estates signed £38.5 million leases in the year, a record figure. It added that it started the new financial year with £2.9 million lettings, £9.4 million lettings under offer and a further £32 million under negotiation.
Despite this, revenue dipped 4.9% to £84.2 million from £88.5 million. The company explained that this was due to lower gross rental income and reduced service charge income. These figures fell 10% and 14% respectively year-on-year.
Looking forward, Chief Executive Toby Courtauld said the company's outlook was positive despite current uncertainties: ‘Whilst we expect macro-economic and geopolitical uncertainties to persist in the near term, dampening growth, the conditions we highlighted at our interims in November and which had kick-started the post-pandemic recovery in London's economy and its property markets, remain in evidence today.’
A final dividend of 7.9 pence was declared, this brought the company's total payout to 31.9p, up marginally from 31.8p the previous year.
Shares in Great Portland Estate were down 5.1% at 639.50p on Thursday morning in London.
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