British Land has extended its buyback programme with plans to invest up to £200m of its own shares this financial year.
The company, which announced the sale of the £1bn 5 Broadgate, EC2, to Li Ka-Shing this morning, said the buyback programme is attractive because British Land’s shares are trading at a significant discount to net asset value.
As of writing, British Land is trading at 689p – considerably below the 967p EPRA NAV it reported in its full-year results.
British Land already bought back £300m of shares in the previous financial year. At the time, it said its decision was due to the opportunity for better returns from investing in the company’s shares than investing in assets, opportunities for which have been limited.
However, alongside the buyback programme, the company also doubled the size of its development pipeline in the previous financial year. Last month, it submitted phase one plans for its £3bn-plus Canada Water development in SE16.
In a statement this morning, the company said: “Our financial position remains strong with LTV at 28% as of 31 March 2018, and we will continue to progress our strategic agenda of investing in our business with a disciplined approach to capital allocation and returns.”
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