Land Securities beat the rising tide with FY profits up 14.8% and a total return of 23.6%

Land Securities, the U.K.'s largest real estate investment trust, is beating the rising tide in London property values as it reports an adjusted NAV per share up 19.5% for the full year to 31st March 2011 today. All the other ratios also took a turn for the better, with LTV improving from 43.5% to 39%, total business return of 23.6%, and LFL voids down from 5.3% to 4.3%. The firm exceeded expectations with a FY pre-tax profit up 14.8% to £1.227 billion.

Chief Executive Francis Salway said:

"This was a year of continued recovery in our market and strong progress by Land Securities. Our focus on development, our disciplined approach to acquisitions and disposals and our asset management activities have all delivered significant momentum across the business."

"We remain of the view that our markets are in recovery mode and we see particularly strong growth prospects in London over the next few years. We may continue to see ripples in prices, but we go into the new financial year confident in our plans and well positioned to address growth opportunities. By restarting development first, we signalled our intention to be proactive in driving returns as the market turned. Our strong balance sheet, access to capital, excellent occupier relationships and property skills equip us to create value in this market. Our focus is on turning these strengths into strong and tangible returns for shareholders."

Commenting on the property investment market Salway said: "we have seen some disposals of assets by banks and we expect this to gather momentum. To date, disposals have been met with strong levels of investor interest and values have continued to move up at a modest but positive rate. We are encouraged by the volumes of capital available for investment in UK property at the present time."

Land Securities is currently building at a number of sites, including "Walkie Talkie" 20 Fenchurch Street, EC3, a 64,520 sq m tower development being undertaken with Canary Wharf Group in the City; Trinity Leeds, which will provide up to 75,900 sq m of new retail space and at Buchanan Street, Glasgow ( a site acquired in December 2009 from an administrator acting for a bank where Leases have now been concluded for 69% of the retail space by income).

Adjusted net assets increased over the year from £5.241 billion to £6.306 billion, while the adjusted net debt was £4.186 billion. The weighted average duration of the Group's debt (including joint ventures) is 11.4 years with a weighted average cost of debt of 4.9%.

The firm has increased it's dividend slightly to 28.2p per share the shares have gained about 11% this year and closed last night at 747.5p, valuing the firm at £5.776 billion.

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