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Great Portland Estates PLC on Wednesday swung back into profit in its most recent financial year, boosted by rental growth, despite an often ‘extreme and unpredictable’ backdrop. The London-based property company reported pretax profit of £117.8 million in the financial year to March 31 compared with a pretax loss £307.8 million a year prior. Basic earnings per share of 30.2 pence compared to LPS of 101.4p a year prior. Basic EPRA EPS declined 11% to 5.3p from 5.9p. Revenue eased 1.3% to £94.2 million from £95.4 million a year prior. Great Portland said IFRS net asset value per share and EPRA net tangible assets per share were 494 pence per share at March 31, up 4.4% from the pro forma net assets per share of 473p a year before. This was ahead of company-compiled consensus of 484p and largely due to the 3.6% like-for-like valuation uplift in the property portfolio to £2.9 billion. Rental values increased by 5.0%, with offices up 5.3% and retail up 3.5%. The total rent roll grew 15% to £123 million, with organic growth potential of 131%. As a result, portfolio estimated rental value growth guidance was upgraded to 7% from 4% for financial 2026, with prime office ERV raised to 10% from 6%. In response, shares in Great Portland were up 0.2% at 340.50p each in London on Wednesday. Chief Executive Toby Courtauld said Great Portland has ‘achieved or exceeded most of the challenging operational targets we set ourselves, in spite of the often extreme and unpredictable macro-political backdrop.’ ‘We have accretively deployed the proceeds from last year’s rights issue, well ahead of programme and at the trough of the market whilst delivering valuation growth for the first time since 2022,’ he added. The total dividend was maintained at 7.9p per share, including a final payout of 5.0p. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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