Land Securities pulls divi, warns of tenant failures as FY losses widen

Property developer Land Securities pulled its final dividend and warned of tenant failures across its portfolio as the coronavirus crisis contributed to wider full year losses of almost £1bn in an already struggling market.

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The company posted a pre-tax loss of £837m compared with a loss of £123m a year ago while its asset valuation was down 8% to £1.2bn, due to an already tough trading environment exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and associated retail shutdowns.

“While it is too early to predict outcomes with any certainty, it seems prudent to plan for more business failures and higher vacancy rates across our portfolio, in particular leisure and retail, and we don't expect to see the economy recover to pre-Covid-19 levels before 2022 at the earliest,” the Bluewater shopping centre manager said on Tuesday.

The company’s EPRA net asset value fell 11.6% to 1,192 pence.

LandSec said the immediate impact of Covid-19 had been "particularly significant" on its retail and specialist segments as only essential services like supermarkets and pharmacies remained open in line with government lockdown restrictions introduced in March.

Four of its retail destinations were shut completely and rent collection rates in March and early April were impacted negatively across the portfolio with an average 63% collected within 10 days of falling due, compared with 94% for the same period in 2019.

The company warned that June rent collection rates were likely to be worse than March given that most of the negative economic impact from Covid-19 had fallen in the second quarter.

"The pace of subsequent recovery from hereon will vary by sector. Ongoing social distancing measures will affect certain sectors much more than others, all businesses will need time to work with their global supply chains and workforces to resume trading as normal and heightened levels of caution amongst the general public are likely to affect behaviour for many months to come," LandSec said.