Business
Great Portland Estates Half Year Results 2020
Great Portland Estates Half Year Results 2020.
About this update from Great Portland Estates Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \n \n \n RNS Number : 9001E\n Great Portland Estates PLC\n 11 November 2020\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n 11 November 2020\n \n \n \n Resilient and evolving business positioned for long-term growth\n \n \n The Directors of Great Portland Estates plc announce the results for the Group for the six months ended 30 September 2020\n \n 1\n \n . \n \n \n Toby Courtauld, Chief Executive, said:\n \n \n \n \"We have delivered\n \n \n a resilient first half performance in perhaps some of the most challenging trading conditions we have experienced. Despite this context, Great Portland is in robust health, with one of the strongest balance sheets in the sector given our low leverage and high liquidity, both protecting us on the downside and providing us with capacity for growth when we deem the time to be right.\n \n \n \n It is clear that the impact of the COVID crisis will persist for longer than we had hoped and we are engaging extensively with our occupiers and communities, providing assistance where it is most needed. With unemployment rising, albeit from a low level, we should expect rents and capital values in London to fall further. However, we are encouraged by the level of new enquiries we continue to receive from prospective occupiers, particularly for our developments and our flex space product, along with increasing activity in the central London investment market.\n \n \n As we look beyond COVID, it is likely that the evolution in the patterns of work and shopping we have experienced over recent years will have accelerated - for example, the demands of office occupiers for greater wellbeing provision in smaller scale, more flexible buildings with higher sustainability credentials. We are addressing these and other themes through, for instance, growing our flex office offer and the launch today of our Roadmap to decarbonise our business to Net Zero by 2030. And, we are doing so firm in our belief that, however occupiers' demands evolve, our human desire to congregate and create will underpin London's magnetic appeal as a global business capital for the long term; plus, our financial strength, extensive pipeline of opportunity across our portfolio and our talented team with its deep market knowledge will give us the ability to choose our path to deliver o...