Today we have announced our half year results to 30 June 2018. Read the highlights here, or use the links at the bottom of the page to download the full press release, the presentation or view the webcast.

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Lawrence Hutchings, Chief Executive, comments: 
“This is a robust set of results which demonstrate that our strategy is delivering for our communities, our retailer customers and our shareholders.  Furthermore the combination of strong lettings progress which has driven increased like-for-like rental income, as well as growth in footfall, where we once again comfortably outperformed the national average, and an increase in adjusted profit, all illustrate the resilience of the high quality convenient “needs” focussed community shopping centres that characterise our portfolio.  This asset class continues to prove its importance in a polarising retail landscape.

“We have made progress across all areas of the business including delivery of strategy, centre repositioning, master planning and capex deployment, strengthening the team, retailer relationships, community engagement and cost savings.

“The Board has announced a 5.2% increase in the interim dividend compared to 2017.  The Board continues to maintain its medium term objective of dividend growth in a range of 5% and 8% per annum.  Given the short term impact of CVAs or administrations the Board expects full year dividend growth in 2018 to be at the low end of this range.  We remain confident that the combination of our in-house expertise and the strength and affordability of our underlying assets will enable us to successfully remerchandise and evolve our centres to maintain positive momentum.”

Adjusted Profit growth in the face of challenging market conditions supports increased dividend

• Adjusted Profit¹ up 6.9% to £15.5 million (June 2017: £14.5 million) setting the business on track for its fifth consecutive year of Adjusted Profit growth
• Adjusted Earnings per Share¹ up 4.4% to 2.15p (June 2017: 2.06p)
• Interim dividend increased by 5.2% to 1.82p per share (June 2017: 1.73p)
• Net Rental Income on wholly-owned assets up £1 million to £26.0 million (June 2017: £25.0 million), reflecting like for like² growth of 1.3%
• Contracted rent of £62.3 million in line with June 2017
• Cost efficiency programme on track to meet the 2016 target of at least £1.8 million of annualised savings by the end of 2018

Community shopping centre strategy well advanced and delivering growth through remerchandising and deployment of accretive capex plan

• 9 million shopper visits in the period, representing like-for-like growth of 1.7% and another period of considerable outperformance of the national footfall index which was down 3.4%
• Continuing occupier demand reflected in high occupancy at 96.9% (30 June 2017: 95.5%)
• 44 new lettings and renewals in the period at a combined average premium of 3.4%³ to previous passing rent and a 3.3%³ premium to ERV
• Capex investment of £6.8 million in period with key projects including Luton office refurbishment, further development of Ilford family area and Hemel guest services and increased pipeline for H2 2018 with average target returns of 9%+
• Conditional planning consent for the extension and residential development at Walthamstow granted in July 2018

Robust balance sheet with long term debt security

• Basic and EPRA NAV per share resilient, at 66p and 65p respectively (December 2017: both 67p).
• Valuation of the wholly-owned portfolio was £883.4 million at 30 June 2018, down 0.4% from December 2017. Total revaluation loss, net of capex and joint ventures, was £12.4 million resulting in a reduction in IFRS Profit for the period to £6.7 million (30 June 2017: £12.1 million) 
• Net LTV unchanged at 46% (December 2017: 46%)
• Competitive cost of debt of 3.27% with weighted average debt maturity of 6.8 years⁴

Notes: 

All metrics are for wholly-owned portfolio unless otherwise stated.

¹   Adjusted Profit and Adjusted Earnings per share are as defined in the Glossary.  Adjusted Profit incorporates profits from operating activities and excludes revaluation of properties and financial instruments, gains or losses on disposal, exceptional items and other defined terms.   A reconciliation to the equivalent EPRA and statutory measures is provided in Note 6 to the condensed financial statements. 

²   Like-for-like excludes the impact of property purchases and sales on year to year comparatives. 

³ For lettings and renewals (excluding development deals) with a term of five years or longer and which did not include a turnover element.

⁴    As at 30 June 2018, assuming exercise of all extension options.

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