Strong rent collection figures have enabled Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust to increase its quarterly dividend by 9% and outperform the MSCI benchmark.
Rent collected for the quarter ending 31 March 2021 currently totals 85% of contracted rents (as at 10 February 2021). Office and industrial rent collection remains strong at 96% and 98% respectively, with retail and leisure rental collection rates at just 54%.
Schroder said it was in “active dialogue” with its tenants for all rents due to be paid and expected to recover a significant portion of the outstanding amount.
An increase in weighting towards industrial, increasing from 30% to 37% during the three months to 31 December, has enabled Schroder to show resilience during the Covid pandemic. During the final three months of the year its underlying portfolio produced a total return of 1.9% – marginally outperforming the MSCI benchmark of 1.3%. The portfolio’s quarterly income return totalled 1.6%, compared with the benchmark’s 1.1%.
For the calendar year 2020, Schroder’s underlying portfolio produced a total return of 0.7% compared with MSCI’s -1.2%.
The firm said that it had £40m of cash and undrawn facilities available and that it would use these funds for acquisitions, investment in its existing portfolio and to continue its share buyback programme.
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