British Land Retail Event

RNS Number : 7457P

British Land Co PLC

07 October 2011

 



                                                7 October 2011

British Land Retail Event

British Land is today hosting a second analyst and investor event in Glasgow focused on British Land's Retail portfolio. This follows the company's London office day at Regent's Place, London, held on 21 September. The Retail event will include presentations from Charlie Maudsley, Head of Retail, and other senior members of the Group's Retail team and will conclude with a tour of Glasgow Fort. It will include presentations from Charlie Maudsley, Head of Retail, and other senior members of the Group's Retail team and will conclude with a tour of Glasgow Fort. The presentations will provide further information on our Retail portfolio, how it is structured and how it is managed to deliver superior total returns, in line with the Group's strategy.

British Land is the largest quoted retail landlord in the UK, with £9.9 billion of assets under management (at 30 June 2011). With 23 million sq ft of high quality space across the UK, we own or manage 17% of the IPD retail universe. We are the largest owner/manager of retail warehouses and the largest investment owner of superstores. Our shopping centres and retail parks are ranked in the top quartile of the 4,000 UK retail destinations, as ranked by the market solutions company CACI.

Our Retail portfolio is well positioned in a market where retailers are increasingly focusing their store portfolios on high quality modern space which is locally dominant and accessible; where the shop units are well configured and highly flexible; where the rents are affordable; and where consumers want to shop and spend their time. Our retail portfolio has consistently outperformed the market in recent years on both rental value growth and total returns. This reflects our ability to provide our occupiers with the breadth and quality of space they need and our disciplined approach to driving total returns.

Looking forward, we believe we are well positioned to continue to outperform. With a strong occupier base, high occupancy (99%), long leases and a low level of near-term lease expiries, our portfolio is highly resilient in today's more challenging markets and we have continued to see occupier demand for our space.  In our second quarter to September, lettings were again agreed ahead of rental values and we currently have 490,000 sq ft under offer against 190,000 sq ft of vacant space.

Charles Maudsley, Head of Retail at British Land, said: "We are looking forward to the opportunity to highlight the strengths of our retail business, how it is well positioned both today and for the future. The strength of our offer combined with our quality occupier base and high occupancy means we believe we are well positioned in a market which is clearly becoming more challenging. We've seen continued demand for space although it is taking a little longer to get deals concluded. Looking further forward, we expect to benefit from a shortage of high quality space when the economy starts to improve."

Today's presentations will be available on the British Land website www.britishland.com Audio recordings of the event will be available from 10 October 2011.

Enquiries:

Investor Relations
Sally Jones, British Land                                                 020 7467 2942

Media
Pip Wood, British Land                                                   020 7467 2838
Guy Lamming/Gordon Simpson, Finsbury                         020 7251 3801

Forward-Looking Statements

This document contains certain "forward-looking" statements reflecting, amongst 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 £15.2 billion (British Land share £9.9 billion), as valued at 30 June 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 byover 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 11 years are among the highest of the major UK REITs.

Retail assets account for 64% 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, 12 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) amounting to 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 are investing £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 the 500,000 sq ft NEQ mixed use scheme at Regent's Place.

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.

About Glasgow Fort

Glasgow Fort is a 393,000 sq ft retail park, which was built in 2004. It is one of the pre-eminent fashion-led parks in the UK with an annual footfall of 12.5 million people. It provides the vibrancy of a high street environment with the convenience of an out-of-town location with a diverse range of occupiers including Asda Living, Next, Boots, Zara, Mamas & Papas, Republic, H&M, Bank, Argos and TK Maxx, Smyth's Toys will open in 2012. We expect to start a committed 48,000 sq ft cinema development, comprising an eight-screen cinema and five restaurant units all of which have been pre-let. We have planning consent to extend the park by a further 100,000 sq ft with advanced discussions on pre-lettings ongoing.

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

 

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