British Land in £300m share buyback

British Land on Tuesday announced a £300m buyback, saying opportunities investment in the company's shares at the prevailing discount “offers better value than further asset acquisitions”.

Since full year results in May, BL said it had made £575m from its share of The Leadenhall Building sale, £135m assets have been sold and a further £88m were under offer.

In total, 370,000 sq ft of lettings and renewals were made during the first quarter at 7.8% ahead of estimated rental value, BL said.

"We continue to see strong demand in the investment market, which makes opportunities to acquire new standing assets, at attractive returns, more limited than usual,” said chief executive Chris Grigg.

“With our shares trading at a substantial discount to NAV and providing a 5% dividend yield, allocating capital into a share buy-back represents a clear value opportunity.

"With substantial proceeds being realised from our disposals programme, we do not expect any material change in our loan to value ratio as a result of the share buy-back. We retain significant resources to develop the pipeline of development opportunities we have created and the flexibility to respond to any changes in market conditions."