Capital & Regional PLC’s (LON:CAL) portfolio of community shopping centres continues to defy predictions of the demise of the high street.
The first half of the year saw the real estate investment trust’s (REIT) adjusted profit before tax rise to £15.5mln from £14.5mln the year before.
READ: Capital & Regional focused on needs-based retail as times change
Net rental income on wholly-owned assets rose by £1mln to £26mln from the year before, with like-for-like growth (LFL) of 1.3%.
Its portfolio of shops has 37.9mln customer visits in the period, representing LFL growth of 1.7% during a time when the national footfall index was down 3.4% year-on-year.
The occupancy rate at the end of June had risen to 96.9% from 95.5% a year earlier. Net asset value dipped to 66p from 67p at the end of 2017. An interim dividend of 1.82p has been recommended, up 5.2% from the year before.
The REIT aims over the medium term to increase dividend payouts by 5-8% a year and indicated that this year full-year growth in the payout is likely to be at the lower end of that range, reflecting the short-term impact of some of its retail customers going into administration.
Capital Regional was proud to be a sponsor of the Family Worship & Praise Center’s Shoes 4 School initiative. Helping kids be as ready as possible for the school year ahead. #givingbacktothecommunity #schoolready #sneakers @TheFWPC pic.twitter.com/sb24Zgbu4j
— Capital Regional (@CapitalRegional) August 12, 2018
"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" focused community shopping centres that characterise our portfolio. This asset class continues to prove its importance in a polarising retail landscape,” said Lawrence Hutchings, the chief executive of Capital & Regional (C&R).
“We remain confident that the combination of our in-house expertise and the strength and affordability of our underlying assets will enable us to successfully remerchandise and evolve our centres to maintain positive momentum," Hutchings said.
Shares in C&R opened 2% lower at 48p.