LondonMetric pays special dividend

"It's been another busy year," agreed chief executive Andrew Jones, and the group has made giant strides repositioning its portfolio to concentrate on distribution warehouses and convenience shopping. These now make up 90 per cent of the £1.4bn portfolio, while exposure to residential and office assets has been reduced to just 10 per cent from 45 per cent in 2013.

In shifting this emphasis, the group has also been successful with its property management, making disposals of £289m at a net initial yield of 5.2 per cent, while acquiring 20 new assets totalling £309m at 6.2 per cent. Net rental income grew by just over a fifth, driven by acquisitions made in the previous year. And while £11.3m of rental income was lost as a result of disposals, this was mostly offset by income of £9.7m generated by assets bought during the period.

Further income will come from the 2m sq ft under development. Later this year distribution sites for Primark at Islip and The Hut Group at Warrington, which account for 1.8m sq ft, will be completed, and are expected to add around £9m to the rental stream. Of the other five projects four are already pre-let, and once the final space is filled at the fifth, the set will add an additional £3.8m in rent. There is also conditional development pipeline of 1.1m sq ft, including a 37-acre site close to the M1. For this, the group reports strong retailer interest, and planning consent could be secured later this year.

Group finances remain in good shape, and while net debt rose by £114m to £499m, the strong valuation uplift meant that the loan-to-value ratio remained a comfortable 36 per cent, up from 32 per cent.

Analysts at Peel Hunt are forecasting adjusted net asset value by March 2016 of 154p.