Land Securities has announced interim results covering the six months ended 30 September 2015. The adjusted diluted NAV rose 5.7% to 1367p (total return 7.0%) while the adjusted diluted EPS rose by 8.4% to 23.2p helped by a fall in vacant space within the portfolio (from 3.2% to 2.8%). The dividend is being increased by 3.2% to 16.3p.
The return on property was 5.9%, behind the 6.8% posted by the IPD quarterly universe. The retail warehouse and food stores segment of their portfolio fell in value by 0.1%. By contrast, the value of their London office portfolio grew by 3.0% and shops did even better, rising by 7.4%.
They spent £317.3m on acquisitions and realised property worth £406.5m. This contributed to a fall in Land Securities’ loan to value ratio from 28.5% to 26.5%.
In the first half they started construction of our development at Westgate, Oxford. This 800,000 sq ft shopping centre, being built in joint venture with The Crown Estate, will open in October 2017. They say they made progress on potential developments at Ealing Filmworks and Selly Oak, Birmingham. Development planned includes a 1.2m sq ft future London pipeline including 21 Moorfields, EC2, Nova East, SW1, 1 Sherwood Street, W1 and Portland House, SW1.
Land Securities held back by retail warehouse and food store exposure