Latest results

Q3 Results to 31 December 2011

Chris Grigg, Chief Executive said: "These results reflect the resilience of British Land’s business. It is noteworthy that underlying profits are up 6.3% despite the tougher economic environment. At the same time, occupancy, income and ERV all rose in the quarter. We have also made further progress on our office development programme. In total, we have now locked in future annual rent of £32 million through a series of binding pre-lets. These pre-lets mean that our office development programme is already 50% pre-let even though it mainly reaches practical completion between 2013 and 2014. Of course, the current economic outlook is uncertain, but overall our business is defensively positioned today and will benefit further as economic growth returns."

Strong asset management and investment delivering resilient results

• Q3 UPBT¹ up 6.3% to £68 million versus prior year (last 12 months UPBT¹ +4.7%)
• Portfolio valuation up to £10.3 billion: +0.1% over 3 months (last 12 months: +4.5%)
• EPRA NAV² up 0.3% to 593 pence over 3 months (last 12 months +8.2%)
• Quarterly dividend of 6.5 pence as previously indicated
• Total accounting return³ over 12 months of 13.0%

Securing and growing income: occupancy up and lettings ahead of ERV

• Total portfolio ERV growth of 0.2% over 3 months; (last 12 months +2.3%)
• £8.7 million pa of new rent from 1.6 million sq ft of leasing activity (including pre-lets) in Q3
• Lettings and renewals 7.5% above ERV in retail; 9.0% above ERV in offices
• Occupancy up 20 bps to 98.0%;UK retail ahead at 98.4% and offices up to 97.8%

London office development programme over 50% pre-let on unconditional contracts: secures £32 million of annual income

• Completed 191,000 sq ft pre-let to Aon at the Leadenhall Building which will be its global HQ
• Completed 700,000 sq ft pre-let to UBS at 5 Broadgate (post Q3)
• All developments well underway and on track; over 70% of costs placed within budget and on time
• £160 million of valuation uplift from office developments to date; further £184 million estimated by valuers to come

Increasing UK retail development pipeline: over 1 million sq ft committed or in planning

• Started £64 million development of 300,000 sq ft Whiteley Shopping Centre; already over 50% let
• 45,000 sq ft extension of Glasgow Fort fully let or under offer; construction starting soon

Strong financial position and access to debt finance

• £1.2 billion of financing activity during 2011
• LTV broadly unchanged at the end of Q3 at 45.6% (proportionally consolidated) with interest cover at 2.2 times; Group LTV at 28.9%
• Operational and financial flexibility maintained with diverse funding structure and broad spread of maturities

¹ Underlying pre-tax profit – see Note 1 to the condensed set of financial statements
² See Note 1 to the condensed set of financial statements
³ Growth in EPRA NAV plus dividends paid

Investor Conference Call

British Land will host a conference call at 9.00am today, 9 February 2012. The details for the conference call are as follows:

A dial in replay will be available later in the day and the details are:

For Information Contact

Investor Relations

Media

Forward-Looking Statements

This document contains certain “forward-looking” statements reflecting, among other things, current views on our markets, activities and prospects. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances that may or may not occur and which may be beyond British Land’s ability to control or predict (such as changing political, economic or market circumstances). Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from any outcomes or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of British Land speak only as of the date they are made and no representation or warranty is given in relation to them, including as to their completeness or accuracy or the basis on which they were prepared. Except to the extent required by law, British Land does not undertake to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect any changes in British Land’s expectations with regard thereto or any changes in information, events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

Notes to Editors:

About British Land
British Land is one of Europe's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) with total assets, owned or managed, of £15.7 billion (British Land share £10.3 billion), as valued at 31 December 2011. Through our property and finance expertise we attract experienced partners to create properties and environments which are home to over 1,000 different organisations and visited by over 250 million people each year. Our property portfolio is focused on prime retail locations and Central London offices which attract high quality occupiers committed to long leases. Our occupancy rate of 98% and average lease length to first break of 12 years are among the highest of the major UK REITs.

Retail assets account for 61% of our portfolio, over 80% of which are located at prime out-of-town sites. Comprising around 27 million sq ft of retail space across 91 retail warehouse properties, 99 superstores, 11 shopping centres and 10 department stores, the retail portfolio is generally modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats. Active asset management delivers attractive space to both retailers and consumers.

London offices, located in the City and West End, comprise 33% of the portfolio (rising to an estimated 38% on completion of current developments) with 7 million sq ft of office space including Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share) and Regent's Place in the West End. We have committed £1.1 billion to create Central London's largest committed office development programme which will deliver 2.2 million sq ft of high quality space by 2014, including a 700,000 sq ft building at 5 Broadgate, the 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall Building in London's insurance district and a 500,000 sq ft mixed office and residential scheme at Regent's Place in the West End.

Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business and we focus on five areas which matter most to us and our key stakeholders: managing buildings efficiently; developing sustainable buildings; enhancing biodiversity; exceeding customers' expectations and focusing on local communities. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to our corporate aim of building the best REIT in Europe.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com

Download the Q3 Year 2011/12 results full press release PDF (0.38MB)