British Land Company Plc (BLND) Q2 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Watch the replay and follow the connected company analysis, news, and investor updates for British Land Company Plc.

Watch the replay

Replay transcript excerpt

WEBVTT 00:00:00.031 -- 00:00:05.637 Good morning everyone and thank you very much for joining us for our half year results. 00:00:05.637 -- 00:00:08.321 Well done for battling in against Storm Debbie. 00:00:08.321 -- 00:00:14.327 We appreciate you coming today. We'll follow the usual running order. 00:00:14.327 -- 00:00:19.293 Bhavesh will take you through the financials, Darren the operational performance and 00:00:19.293 -- 00:00:22.337 I'll wrap up on the strategy and the outlook. 00:00:22.337 -- 00:00:26.301 But before we do that, I just wanted to share the headlines. 00:00:26.301 -- 00:00:29.849 We're really pleased with the operational performance in this half. 00:00:29.849 -- 00:00:35.116 We've continued to lease well right across the business with 1.6 million square feet 00:00:35.116 -- 00:00:40.183 of leasing 12% ahead of ERV. We've also controlled 00:00:40.183 -- 00:00:45.311 costs well despite inflation and taken together this has led to profit 00:00:45.311 -- 00:00:48.134 growth of 3%. The 00:00:48.134 -- 00:00:53.161 macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop remains uncertain as we know and interest 00:00:53.161 -- 00:00:56.309 rates have increased since we last reported. 00:00:56.309 -- 00:01:01.720 As a result, we've seen further outward yield shift of 23 basis points, 00:01:01.720 -- 00:01:07.691 though this slowed during the period. Importantly, rental growth has accelerated 00:01:07.691 -- 00:01:13.603 with ERV up more than 3% across all three of our sub markets. 00:01:13.603 -- 00:01:19.470 This has cushioned the impact on portfolio values, which were down 2.5%. 00:01:20.896 -- 00:01:25.984 In the near term, movements in interest rates, both up and down, will continue 00:01:25.984 -- 00:01:31.272 to affect property values, but rental growth is likely...