No. of Recommendations: 3
Has the NAV stabilised now do you think?
I think so. But I am not at all an informed individual, so that's pretty much the same as saying I don't know.
My uneducated view: Office demand fell, but I think that is largely over. Someone I know in the London office market commented that the rates had definitely bottomed a little while back, in her opinion anyway. Retail had a terrible stretch, but I think that is over except for malls, and British Land aren't really players in conventional malls. "Retail parks" (big box strip malls) are not quite the same thing, and doing OK. I imagine the bulk of the hits were from those two factors. Broke and/or scarce clients are not good things for a landlord. They claim to be doing very well with their "campus" developments, office anchored mixed use big developments.
I think they also raised some capital for developments at a discount to NAV, which is also obviously dilutive (11 pence hit to net tangible assets in 2024 from a 300m capital increase at a 26% discount to NTA). There may also be a pinch of understating as they have been doing some development and I believe projects are valued differently until the rent starts rolling in. I presume they move from some sort of function of book value to some sort of earnings power value.
Jim
