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British Land half-yearly profit fell as the value of its portfolio fell, led by weakness in retail markets.
For the six months ended 30 September, underlying pre-tax profit fell to £158m from £175m on-year, and earnings -- stated as EPRA net asset value per share -- fell 5.4% to 856p.
Its porfolio value was down 4.3%, led by an 8.4% slump in retail offsetting 0.4% growth in offices segment and 4.9% growth in its development segment.
'Retail investment markets remained challenging, with volumes low, reflecting negative sentiment and a number of sellers are under pressure, encouraging more opportunistic pricing,' the company said.
The full-year dividend was raised by 3.0% to 15.97p on-year.
'Looking forward, we expect our markets to remain uneven, but we have kept debt levels low, our balance sheet is strong and flexible and we have a broad spread of expertise across our business. We expect retail to remain challenging, so we'll focus on driving operational performance and maintaining occupancy,' said Chris Grigg, chief executive.
In London, we expect the market to remain good, with supply relatively constrained and high quality space, in well-connected, vibrant parts of town continuing to attract demand from a range of businesses.