Following first quarterly profit in 2 years, British Land eyes up £2.5 billion of property
British Land are eying up properties worth £2.5 billion following their first quarterly profits in over 2 years.
Chief Executive, Chris Grigg, said the property company had placed bids worth £500 million for shops and office space in an attempt to re-build their portfolio. He also said that they would spend another £2 billion on acquiring assets over the next 2 years. British Land’s biggest retail tenants are Sainsburys and Tesco and they now want to invest in more superstores as well as other property outside of it’s usual portfolio. Many believe this is the strongest hint yet that British Land believe the UK property market could be about to recover.
Mr Grigg also added that the company were also thinking about about development, however it wasn’t ready to “press the button” and restart some of the projects they had already begun. This includes large stalled development sites in London, including the £57 million Leadenhall project in the City.
His comments come after the firm announced their net income for the first 6 months ending in September was £161 million with net asset values rising to 3.1% to 372 pence per share. British Land are blaming the good results on “a positive shift in investor appetite, combined with limited stock benefiting market valuationsâ€.