Capital & Regional reports continued improvement in six months to 30 June 2018
Capital & Regional, owner of a portfolio of dominant in-town community shopping centres, has reported strong performance in its half year results to 30 June 2018.
Net Rental Income on its wholly-owned assets was up £1m to £26.0m, reflecting like for like growth of 1.3 per cent and taking contracted rent to £62.3m, in line with June 2017. The cost efficiency programme is on track to meet the 2016 target of at least £1.8m of annualised savings by the end of 2018.
The portfolio saw 37.9m shopper visits in the period, representing like-for-like growth of 1.7 per cent and another period of considerable outperformance of the national footfall index which was down 3.4 per cent. And continuing occupier demand was reflected in occupancy at 96.9 per cent, up from 95.5 per cent 12 months previously.
The period saw 44 new lettings and renewals at a combined average premium of 3.4 per cent to previous passing rent and a 3.3 per cent premium to ERV.
Chief executive Lawrence Hutchings said: “This is a robust set of results which demonstrate that our strategy is delivering for our communities, our retailer customers and our shareholders. Furthermore the combination of strong lettings progress which has driven increased like-for-like rental income, as well as growth in footfall, where we once again comfortably outperformed the national average, and an increase in adjusted profit, all illustrate the resilience of the high quality convenient ‘needs’ focussed community shopping centres that characterise our portfolio. This asset class continues to prove its importance in a polarising retail landscape.”
