In QuotedData’s morning briefing 27 January 2023:
- GCP Infrastructure (GCP) has announced a dividend of 1.75p per ordinary share, for the period from 1 October 2022 to 31 December 2022. The dividend will be paid on 14 March 2023 to holders of ordinary shares recorded on the register as at the close of business on 10 February 2023. GCP usually offers shareholders a scrip dividend alternative (whereby shareholders can elect to receive new ordinary shares instead of the cash dividend) but, in light of the fact that its shares are currently trading at a discount to NAV, GCP’s board has decided not to offer the scrip dividend alternative and has exercised its discretion to suspend the scrip dividend alternative (QD comment: this makes sense as it would be more cost effective for shareholders to use the cash they’ll receive to purchase shares in the open market instead). GCP’s board says that it keep under consideration the offer of a scrip dividend alternative in respect of future quarterly dividends if the Company’s ordinary shares trade at a premium to their prevailing published NAV at the relevant time.
- Finsbury Growth and Income Trust’s (FGT’s) manager, Nick Train, has been buying more shares in the trust. On 25 January 2023, he purchased 52,227 shares at an average price of 861 pence per share, bringing his total holding to 4,856,866 shares (2.3% of FGT’s issued share capital).
- Industrials REIT (MLI) continued strong occupier demand in a trading update for the quarter to 31 December 2022. The company said that its average passing rent increased by 31% on the aggregate of all new lettings (34 in total) and lease renewals (50) – the highest growth rate it has ever achieved. The growth was driven by average uplifts of 28% and 36% for renewals and new lettings respectively and represented £2.2m in rent. It was the ninth successive quarter of +20% average uplifts. A further seven lettings exchanged in the quarter and will complete this quarter, while 43 deals were under offer at the end of the quarter.
- Land Securities (LAND) has sold One New Street Square, EC4 to Chinachem Group, a property developer based in Hong Kong, for £349.5m. The sale price compares to a September 2022 valuation of £362.8m, but crystallises a total return on capital averaging 10% per annum since Landsec’s acquisition of the site in June 2005 and subsequent redevelopment in 2016. One New Street Square is fully let to Deloitte, with a 14-year unexpired lease term remaining and a current annual net rent of £16.8m. The company said there was “limited opportunities to add further value” and the disposal was in line with its strategy to recycle capital out of mature London offices. Following a strategic review in late 2020, Landsec announced its intention to sell £2.5bn of mature London offices over the medium term. With the sale of One New Street Square, the company has now sold £2.1bn of offices, representing an average yield of 4.4%. The disposal proceeds will initially be used to repay debt and, on a pro-forma basis, would reduce Landsec’s LTV from 31.1% to 28.9% based on September 2022 valuations.
We also have:
- annual results for BlackRock Sustainable American Income.
- annual results from JPMorgan Emerging Europe, Middle East & Africa Securities.