LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Commercial property group Land Securities lifted its earnings forecasts on Friday, despite weaker-than-expected interim profits, after rental income jumped.
Net rental income at the blue chip landlord - which owns a mix of offices and retail, including in the City and West End - rose 5.6% in the six months to September end to £284m, or by 5.2% on a like-for-like basis.

Occupancy was 40 basis points higher at 97.7%, while overhead costs fell 6%.

As a result, earnings per share rose 3.2% to 25.8p.

Pre-tax profits fell sharply, however, to £98m from £243m, following a £67m loss on the sale of £644m of assets which generated little or no return. As a result, net tangible assets per share eased 1.3%.

Both pre-tax profits and NTA missed consensus, sending the shares lower. As at 0915 GMT, the stock was off 3% at 637p

However, Mark Allan, chief executive, said: "We continue to see clear, positive momentum across every part of our business, notwithstanding the wider economic environment.

"Owning the right real estate has never been more important, so we continue to benefit from our proactive portfolio repositioning over the last few years.

"Our entire business is also benefiting from a sharper focus on sustainable EPS growth as our primary performance objective."

Looking to the full year, Landsec now expects like-for-like net rental income to grow by between 4% and 5%, up from previous guidance for around 3% and 4%.

It also expects EPS growth at the top end of guidance for between 2% to 4%.

The firm - which owns a number of shopping centres, including Bluewater in Kent and Trinity Leeds - is looking to expand into residential developments.

It noted that returns were currently insufficient to justify the capital allocation required, but said: "While returns are currently insufficient, positive shifts in public sector policy are helpful and could add around 50 to 75 basis points to current net yields on cost of around 5%."

Max Harper, analyst at Third Bridge, said: "Weaker-than-expected profits should be partly balanced by solid rental growth and some guidance upgrades.

"Landsec's push toward a higher-quality mix of retail, residential and top-tier offices will be expensive, but should leave the business better placed for the long run versus similar landlords such as British Land."

Berenberg, which has a 'buy' rating on the stock, said: "We think forward metrics at Landsec now look more than attractive than most points over the last ten years.

"We expect Landsec to be one of the few companies able to deliver more than 10% total accounting returns in the majority of our five forecast years going forward. The company's - and our - conviction in the performance of major retail is part of that."

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