CLS to pay unchanged dividend

CLS said it would pay an unchanged interim dividend as the value of shareholders' assets was boosted by earnings and the weak pound in the first half.

Net asset value per share rose 3.2% to 339.6p in the six months to the end of June from the end of December using the EPRA industry measure. Statutory NAV per share rose 2.2% to 301.7p.

The FTSE 250 company proposed an unchanged dividend of 2.35p a share compared with a year earlier. Pretax profit fell 63% to £31.5m from a year earlier because of a reduced invest investment property valuation uplift and the absence of an uplift on its equity investment in Catena, which was sold in September.

The office landlord. which operates in the UK, Germany and France, said rent collection was strong during the Covid-19 crisis with 99% of first-half rent and 95% of contracted third-quarter rent collected. CLS increased its bad debt charge to £1.5m from £0.2m a year earlier.

Fredrik Widlund, CLS's chief executive, said: "CLS has delivered an encouraging performance in the first six months of 2020 despite a challenging economic and market backdrop … Rent collection performance and our diverse portfolio together with our robust balance sheet demonstrate the resilience of our business model and we have maintained our dividend."

Widlund said offices would continue to be important in a post-Covid economy and that lower densities and less hotdesking could increase requirements. He said leasing enquiries were picking up with economic recovery and that CLS was on the lookout for acquisitions.

CLS shares fell 0.7% to 205.50p at 08:46 BST.