(Alliance News) - Great Portland Estates PLC on Thursday said loss widened significantly in the first half, despite revenue ticking up, largely due to an increased deficit from investment property values.
In the six months that ended September 30, the London-based property developer said pretax loss widened to GBP253.4 million from GBP86.6 million a year earlier.
Revenue was up 9.4% to GBP47.6 million from GBP43.5 million, but deficit from investment property widened significantly to GBP219.7 million from GBP80.6 million. At September 30, its portfolio was valued at GBP2.3 billion, down 10%.
Great Portland Estates declared an interim dividend of 4.7 pence, unchanged from a year earlier.
Looking ahead, it upgraded its rental value growth range for financial year 2024, which ends March 31, to 2.5% to 5.0%. In the first half, rental values were up 1.8%.
"Whilst macro-economic concerns and rising interest rates impacted our property valuation, the fundamentals in our leasing markets remain healthy. With customers increasingly demanding the very best, sustainable spaces, and discounting the rest, they are competing in a market increasingly starved of new, grade A supply, putting further upward pressure on prime rents and we have upgraded our rental growth forecasts for the second half," said Chief Executive Officer Toby Courtauld.
"GPE's positioning is strong; 75% of our portfolio is in the heart of the West End [of London]; our substantial capex programme will deliver the prime spaces the market demands; our Flex office offer is growing, is well suited to evolving customer needs, as evidenced by our market-leading [net promoter] score, and is delivering our highest rental growth; and our strong balance sheet and plentiful liquidity combined with our long track record of creating opportunities in cyclical markets means that we are well positioned to capitalise."
Shares in Great Portland Estates were down 4.2% to 426.60 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
By Greg Rosenvinge, Alliance News senior reporter
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