Land Securities chairman Peter Hunt announced a 5% hike in the company’s interim dividend to 6.3p and lashed out at cuts in Government funding for transport. “This is grossly unfair to the people of London. They have cut back something like £300m from the central London transport budget,” he says.
Hunt wants the Government to step back from supporting the Jubilee Line extension at the expense of Crossrail and improvements to the Northern and Central Lines. “The political decision that has been made is letting people down. You have to make sure that what you have is safe and properly working. Central London is where the people are, not in Docklands.”
Land Securities, which has 57% of its properties in the City and West End, boosted pretax profit to £116m (£112m) for the six months to September as net rental income rose 9% to £201m. However, Hunt points out, profits are on a flattening trend; in the half-year to March 1992 they came in at £115.7m pretax.
Since May, Land Sec has let the surplus space in Grand Buildings, its flagship office development inTrafalgar Square, WC2. Voids are on the increase, but relettings have reduced the rental value of unlet space from £12m in May to £10m.
Land Sec says that more than 75% of its rental income is secured on leases expiring beyond 2000 and less than 10% of its debt requires payment before that date. Last year’s total dividend was covered by earnings and was paid out of cash flow. “We have always concentrated on the income and capital growth is a bonus,” says Hunt.
