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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Simon Neville

British Land suffers from closure of Clinton Cards but London office rents continue to rise

British Land Company's retail property portfolio only managed a minimal increase, thanks to the hits taken from the collapse of some of the High Street's best known brands.

The property firm reported its assets are now worth £15.8bn, up from £15.7bn in the three months to the end of December.

There was a fall in retail values, with the fall of Peacocks, Game Group and Clinton Cards, but this was offset by gains in office developments.

With 0.6% of retailers in their premises in administration currently, this will nearly double to 1% because of the failure of Clinton's.

Its London office portfolio saw rents increase 2.5%, and the company highlighted its strong relationships with major fashion retailers with Next, Marks & Spencer and H&M.

The company reported a 5.1% rise in annual underlying profits to £269 million, helped by a 5.4% overall growth in net rental income.

The company owns half of the Meadowhall shopping centre near Sheffield, as well as Drake Circus in Plymouth and around 90 retail parks.

Chief executive Chris Grigg said prospects were clouded by the outcome of the eurozone crisis but said key trends still favoured the business.

He added: "Given the ongoing shortage of quality space in both offices and retail, we believe there are further opportunities to create value and we are investing in expanding our future development pipeline."

It has been a successful year for British Land, in November the company announced insurance broker Aon will be taking 191,000 sq ft on the lower 10 floors of its 47-floor Cheesegrater building – soon to be one of the latest new builds in the City.

The deal is for an average lease term of 19 years at £56.50 a square foot, with a 33-month rent-free period.

In the West End, Debenhams is taking 145,000 sq ft of office space at Regent's Place at the northern end of Tottenham Court Road.

Shares were up 6.9p, or 1.4%, to 499.5p.

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