(Alliance News) - Land Securities Group PLC on Thursday said trading has remained positive since its half-year results in November, as it set out its focus for the next phase of its strategy.
This will build on its strategic achievements since late 2020, and focus on income and EPS growth to drive its overall return on equity, the London-based property firm said.
As part of this, LandSec will further rebalance its portfolio mix, with more investment in growing its retail platform, and, to fund this, a smaller share of capital employed in offices, it said in a statement.
LandSec said its strategy is expected to deliver around 20% growth in earnings per share from 50 pence at present to a potential 60 pence by 2030. Maintaining its 1.2 to 1.3 times target dividend cover, this compound EPS growth should drive continued growth in dividends, which will now be paid semi-annually, it said.
The company sees two key strands that will drive EPS growth. Firstly, over the next 1 to 3 years, this will be driven by capturing the growing reversion in its existing retail and office portfolios; reducing overhead costs by a further GBP12 million from GBP77 million in 2024 and releasing capital employed in low/non-yielding pre-development assets.
Second, the next 2 to 5 years will see this further enhanced by a rotation of capital towards assets which offer higher income, but more importantly, higher income growth.
LandSec said its current operational performance has remained strong. Occupancy across its retail and office portfolios has continued to grow and the company has continued to sign leases ahead of previous passing rent. As a result, the Company expects to deliver around 4% like-for-like net rental income growth this year.
It now expects financial 2025 EPS to slightly ahead of last year's level. In the year to March 31, 2024 the company reported EPRA EPS of 50.1p.
For financial 2026, LandSec expects EPRA EPS to build further on this and show good progress towards its 2030 potential.
Shares in Land Securities were 0.1% lower at 575.00p each in London on Thursday afternoon.
By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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