Tritax Big Box has delivered its strongest H1 results to date, with profits up 19% and an 11% rise in the value of its portfolio.
The shed REIT reported profits of £84.1m from a £4.9bn portfolio, with an annual rent roll rising to £189m. Earnings per share rose by 23.6% over the past six months.
The REIT said that H1 had also seen its highest ever take-up, with 21m sq ft let and a further 16m sq ft currently under offer. Nearly half of that was for big boxes of over 500,000 sq ft.
It has so far collected 99.5% of rents for H1, and 100% of last year’s rents, with no vacancies in the entire portfolio.
Tritax Management boss Colin Godfrey said: “We have delivered the strongest first half performance to date, with a 12.5% total return. The valuation of our portfolio reflects investment demand for high-quality assets. This is supported by attractive rental growth, resulting from an increasingly acute imbalance between significant and increasing demand and highly constrained supply, in a market with clear barriers to entry.”
Tritax received planning consent for 2.4m sq ft of development over the period. Godfrey said: “With 100% planning consent success so far, and more sites capable of accepting lettings, we are well placed to increase development activity in H2 2021 and beyond.”
New chair Aubrey Adams, who took over from Sir Richard Jewson in May, said that the REIT was benefitting from its long-term strategy to target e-commerce.
“The strategic decision we took in 2019 to increase our development capabilities is paying off, providing us with a significant opportunity to capture unprecedented levels of demand and deliver attractive total returns to shareholders,” he said.
“This will provide new product to complement our high-quality investment portfolio and, together with a strong balance sheet, we are well placed to take advantage of the very favourable market conditions.”
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