|
Great Portland Estates PLC on Thursday reported higher earnings and said it is confident of ‘substantial’ income and value growth over the medium term. The London-based office landlord said pretax profit grew 29% to £152.5 million in the 12 months to the end of March from £117.8 million a year earlier. Revenue climbed 25% to £117.9 million from £94.2 million, while the surplus from investment property was up 19% to £99.4 million from £83.2 million. Basic EPRA earnings per share increased 62% to 8.6 pence from 5.3p. ‘I am pleased to report on a year of numerous operational successes. Despite the multiple macro-economic and geopolitical uncertainties overshadowing London’s economy, we delivered many of the core components of our contra-cyclical strategy, beating expectations; record levels of leasing significantly ahead of rental values, opportunistic acquisitions at a discount, £0.5 billion of asset sales at a premium and the completion of some of the highest quality spaces in our capital city, into a severely undersupplied market,’ said Chief Executive Toby Courtauld. The firm increased its total dividend by 3.8% to 8.2p per share from 7.9p, including a final payout of 5.3p. IFRS net asset value and net tangible assets per share grew 6.1% to 524p. Looking ahead, the chief executive added: ‘Whilst the external environment remains volatile, we are well positioned to build on this momentum; demand for our premium HQ and Flex spaces is strong and our pipeline is long, concentrated in the most sought-after, core locations. As a result, we remain confident we can deliver a cost of capital beating outcome for the forthcoming financial year and substantial income and value growth over the medium term.’ Great Portland Estates expects its total accounting return to ‘build on’ 7.9% from this year, as it progresses towards its target of annual return on equity above 10%. Shares in Great Portland Estates were up 1.4% at 306.60p on Thursday morning in London. Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
|
