Land Securities results for the year ended 31 March 2015 show a 27.6% increase in adjusted diluted net asset value per share, a 2.5% increase in adjusted diluted earnings per share and they are upping the full year dividend by 3.7% to 31.85p.
The ungeared total property return for the year was 23.0%, outperforming the 17.1% return on the IPD Quarterly Universe. They did see an increase in voids in the portfolio from 1.8% to 3.6%. 20 Fenchurch Street, EC3 is 92% let and they managed to pre-let the entirety of 1 New Street Square, EC4, to Deloitte. They say they achieved significant letting progress at The Zig Zag Building, SW1, and 1 & 2 New Ludgate, EC4.
The loan to value ratio has fallen from 32.5% to 28.5%. The weighted average maturity of debt was 8.3 years at the end of March and the weighted average cost of debt was 4.5%. They have £1.4bn of cash and available facilities. Sales of £1.1bn were outstripped by acquisitions of £951m (including Bluewater) and development expenditure of £440m. They have been selling of shopping centres they deem surplus to requirements. Within the development portfolio, 1.5m sq ft is being delivered in London over the next 18 months and they say they have 1.8m sq ft of retail development opportunities including Westgate, Oxford; Buchanan Galleries, Glasgow; and Ealing Filmworks. They plan to build 0.7m sq ft at 21 Moorfields, EC2 and Nova, Victoria, SW1 – Phase II by 2017.
Land Securities beats IPD benchmark