British Land has released its results for the year ended 31 March 2014
The EPRA NAV rose by 15.4% to 688p. The company’s property portfolio outperformed its relevant IPD index – delivering a return of 14.2% vs. 13.6% for the index. Occupancy rose in both their retail and office portfolios (retail 97.6% to 98.6% and office 96.2% – 98.1%). Underlying profit for tax rose by 8.4% to £297m.
British Land spent £1.3bn during the year – building on its portfolio in London and the South East and adding 1.1m sq. ft. of potential development space in Paddington and Shoreditch
The dividend was upped to 27p – an increase of 2.3%.
The loan to value ratio was unchanged over the year at 40% but British Land did manage to cut its interest bill as its weighted average cost of debt fell from 4.6% to 4.1%