Great Portland's gearing at record low, pipeline at record high

This can be seen from the near-20 per cent jump in adjusted net asset value (NAV) to 847p, with net assets climbing from £2.39bn to £2.91bn. Great Portland has its biggest ever development pipeline of around 850,000 sq ft, but with recent signings around 70 per cent of this has already been pre-let. And while it spent £214m on acquisitions, this was more than covered by disposals of £470m at an average value of £1,943 per sq ft. This is third successive year that it has been a net seller and the current year is expected to be the fourth.

Asset appreciation and capital generation has had a transformational effect on gearing, and the loan to value ratio fell to an all-time low of 17.4 per cent. Net rental income grew from £66m to £76m, and the reversionary element grew to 33 per cent, two-thirds of which is expected to be crystallised within the next two years.

Analysts at Peel Hunt are forecasting adjusted NAV at the March 2017 year-end of 930p a share, compared with 847p a year earlier.