Derwent London reports strong first-quarter activity

Derwent London reported strong letting activity and development progress in its first quarter on Thursday, securing £13.2m of annual rental income by letting or pre-letting 185,400 square feet.

The FTSE 250 firm said that includes pre-letting 29,500 square feet to Capital One at White Collar Factory in the Old Street area of central London.

Its board said lettings were 6.1% ahead of December 2015 estimated recovery value on average.

Derwent also confirmed it had a one million square feet development programme under construction.

400,000 square feet of that was due for completion by the second half of 2017, with 57% already pre-let.

Derwent’s loan-to-value ratio was 19% on 31 March, with cash and undrawn facilities of £310m.

"We are encouraged by the level of interest we are seeing for our space, and the strong progress made so far this year across the business,” said chief executive John Burns.

“Although uncertainty ahead of the forthcoming June referendum appears to have lowered investment activity, Derwent London continues to see little evidence of any slowdown in occupier demand for its middle market rental product."