LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - British Land said on Wednesday that it had collected 82% of total rent for the 2021 financial year, with offices at 99% and retail at 70%.
The FTSE 100 company said 76% of March rent has been collected to date, with offices at 96% and retail at 54%, as it expected that to improve in the coming weeks in line with previous quarters.

A total of 1.4 million square feet of total lettings and renewals were made in retail for the first 11 months of the year ended 31 March, ahead of the prior year.

British Land noted that 79% of its retail properties were open as at 12 April, following the opening of non-essential stores in England and Wales.

It added that it was in a "strong" financial position, with £1.8bn of undrawn facilities and cash and no requirement to refinance until 2025.

British Land said it made "good progress" against its strategic priorities for the year, having pre-let almost 30% of the office space at 1 Broadgate to JLL.

Planning permission was secured for Canada Water and a head lease drawn down, with the company expecting to place build contracts for the first phase over the summer.

The board said it was exploiting the "value opportunity" for top quartile retail parks with the acquisition of Biggleswade and acquiring a minority interest in the Hercules Unit Trust (HUT).

It was also progressing opportunities in urban logistics development, including working up plans for more than one million square feet at Meadowhall and Teesside, and also acquiring an urban logistics warehouse in Enfield with "significant" redevelopment potential.

British Land said it had made £1.2bn of disposals since 1 April 2020, recycling that into development and active asset management opportunities.

"We are continuing to engage, on a case-by-case basis, with customers who have strong businesses but have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19 to agree solutions which help them to manage their rental obligations," the British Land board said in its statement.

"These have typically involved moves to monthly rents, deferrals and partial settlement of outstanding rents for the period of closure in return for lease extensions, reduced incentives, commitments to additional space and the removal of lease breaks."

British Land said that, following the opening of non-essential retail on 12 April, around 1,540 of its stores were open.

"We would expect this to increase in the coming weeks if restrictions are relaxed in Scotland as planned and more generally in line with the roadmap set out by the government."

British Land said it would release its full-year results for the 12 months ended 31 March on 26 May.

At 0808 BST, shares in the British Land Company were up 0.35% at 511.2p.

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