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British Land Co. said Wednesday that pretax loss widened in the first half of fiscal 2020 as revenues and portfolio valuations fell.
For the period ended Sept. 30, the real-estate company BLND, +0.28% posted a pretax loss of 440 million pounds ($565.3 million), compared with a loss of GBP42 million in the first half of fiscal 2019. Underlying earnings per share–the company’s preferred metric which excludes exceptional costs was down 6.4% to 16.1 pence.
Revenue in the period fell 34% to GBP328 million, while the company’s portfolio value fell 4.3%.
EPRA net asset value, an important industry metric, fell 5.4% to 856 pence due to valuation declines.
The board has declared an interim dividend of 15.97 pence, up from last year’s 15.5 pence.
The company said it expects its markets to remain uneven but said that it has kept debt levels low and a strong and flexible balance sheet. It said that it will focus on driving operational performance and maintaining occupancy.
