Town Centre Securities cut its retail and leisure portfolio by more than 14% this year as it looks to further diversify its portfolio, the company reported in a strong set of full-year results.
Retail and leisure comprise 55% of Town Centre Securities’ portfolio – or £217.4m – down from 68% one year ago.
The Merrion Centre in Leeds, the company’s largest single asset, has been redeveloped into a mixed-use scheme, reducing “mall” retail income from the centre to less than a quarter of its total income.
EPRA NAV was up by 6.8% to 384p and the portfolio delivered a total property return of 9.4% – just above the IPD All Property average of 9.3%.
The company has a gross development pipeline of £588m, with notable projects including Piccadilly Basin in Manchester, a mixed residential, commercial and car-parking scheme with a GDV in excess of £300m.
Once complete, those developments will significantly increase the size of the company’s portfolio, which has a value of £394m.
Town Centre Securities also increased its financial headroom to more than £30m – up from £12m last year – led by its Merrion House financing agreement with Leeds City Council earlier this year, which resulted in £26.4m of cash. LTV, meanwhile, hit 47.5%, down from 49.3% in 2017.
Edward Ziff, chairman and chief executive of Town Centre Securities, said: “The business has undergone considerable change in recent years as part of a strategy to reposition the portfolio, ensure a resilient income stream, and unlock growth for the future.”
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