Results round-up

Royal Mail reported a 25.5% jump in full-year pre-tax profit as revenues nudged higher, although the group did caution that sales in the UK are likely to fall.

For the 52 weeks to 26 March, pre-tax profit rose to £335m from £267m on revenue of £9.8bn, up from £9.3bn the year before.

In UKPIL, which comprises the company's core UK and international parcels and letter delivery businesses, revenues were down 2% on an underlying basis to £7.7bn, with parcel revenue up 3% but total letter volume down 5%. However, this was more than offset by the performance of parcel delivery service GLS, which saw its revenues rise 9% to £2.1bn.

The company proposed a full-year dividend of 23p per share, up 4% from 2016.

Chief executive officer Moya Greene said: "We have made good progress against all of our strategic priorities.This has been a more challenging period for UK businesses and we have come through it well.

"Our multi-year focus on costs is a key priority. We are on track to avoid around £600m of annualised costs in UKPIL by 2017-18. We are past the peak of investment; we now expect net cash investment of around £450m in 2017-18."

Royal Mail maintained its outlook for addressed letter volume to decline between 4% and 6% a year excluding the impact of political parties' election mailing and said it expects to reach the higher end of its range in 2017-18 if business uncertainty persists.

In addition, it forecasts net cash investment of around £450m in 2017-18 and less than £500m a year going forward.

The UK's largest listed property company Land Securities said full year pre-tax profits fell to £112m from £1.3bn mainly due to a valuation deficit as the initial effects of Brexit were felt in the London office market.

Revenue profit, the company's measure of underlying pre-tax profit, increased by 5.5% to £382m.

The devaluation of properties drove a 155.1p reduction in earnings per share to 14.3p this year. The total dividend is up to 38.55p a share from 35p.

Adjusted diluted earnings per share rose 5.7% to 48.3p while adjusted diluted net asset value per share fell marginally to 1417p.

The company said its combined portfolio was valued at £14.4bn and, with adjusted net debt broadly unchanged over the year at £3.3bn, loan-to-value was 22.2%.

Chief executive Robert Noel said the vote to leave the EU had caused uncertainty, with falling rental values and a cut in construction commitments, albeit less than expected.

"Put simply, our markets remain in good health but they've paused for breath," he said.

"In the London office market, we expected the occupational balance to shift from demand to supply during the course of 2017. The Brexit vote brought that inflexion point forward."

"We won't be sure of the long-term effect of Brexit on our markets for some time. Negotiations with the EU can only begin in earnest after the general election."