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(Alliance News) - British Land Co PLC on Monday said it collected less than half of its retail rents in its latest quarter, with high streets and shopping centres in the UK hit by Covid-19 restrictions and a national lockdown in England.
British Land shares were 1.9% lower at 456.20 pence each in London on Monday morning.
For rent due between December 25 and January 7, the property developer collected 71% of its total rent, with an extra 5% being paid monthly and 24% outstanding.
By segment, British Land pocketed 95% of office rent but just 46% of retail rent. The December quarter was the third of the company's financial year.
"In Offices, we have continued to demonstrate excellent rent collection. We have now received 99% of September rent, 99% of June rent and 98% of March rent," British Land said.
"In Retail, rent collection levels for previous quarters have continued to increase, we have now collected 72% of September rent, 73% of June rent and 49% of March rent, with March collection being lower due to 27% of deferrals provided."
Between November 30 and December 26, the key festive trading period for retailers, footfall in British Land's retail assets was at 76% of the prior year's levels. The company noted this was 21 percentage points ahead of the UK market benchmark monitored by ShopperTrak.
During the period, a tiered system of Covid-19 restrictions was in place in the UK. Towards the end of December, large areas of the country, including London, were slapped with the most stringent tier 4 curbs, which closed the non-essential retail sector.
The tier 4 curbs came after England entered its second national lockdown in November. What's more, England was hit with a third national lockdown last week as the UK is gripped with a more contagious variant of Covid-19.
On January 7, just 32% of British Land's stores were able to trade in some way, down sharply from 73% on Christmas Eve.
"Footfall and sales proved resilient in the four weeks to Christmas," the company noted.
"We continue to engage with those customers who have strong businesses, but have been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19, to help them manage their rental obligations. We are agreeing solutions which are both equitable and mutually beneficial, generally involving moves to monthly rents, deferrals and partial settlement of outstanding rents for the period of closure in return for lease extensions, reduced incentives, commitments to additional space and the removal of lease breaks."
British Land added that it has sealed a further GBP19 million in sales of "smaller" retail assets. So far in financial 2021, it has sold GBP1.1 billion of assets.
"This activity demonstrates good progress against our commitment to recycle capital into accretive developments, including Norton Folgate which we committed to in November and Canada Water, where we have planning permission for our 53 acre site and enabling works have commenced," the company said.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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