Mall owner Capital Shopping Centres lost a number of tenants to administrators in the first half, including Clinton Cards and La Senza. That pushed the vacancy rate up from 3 per cent at the year-end to 5 per cent and cut like-for-like net rental income by 2.3 per cent - the first fall since 2008-09. Chief executive David Fischel argues that CSC is a "fantastic play on the UK economy", but in a double-dip recession that's no plus.
Still, adjusted rental income and earnings rose because the like-for-like fall was offset by an extra month's rent from the Trafford Centre in Manchester, which CSC bought in January 2010. Both footfall figures and property valuations also proved surprisingly robust.
CSC's portfolio comprises both huge inter-regional shopping centres like Trafford and Lakeside (66 per cent) and a long and patchy tail of city-centre malls. There is still demand among institutional investors for the big centres, but a much thinner market for the smaller ones. Overall, the surveyors left the valuation flat, which in an environment of falling rents and bankruptcies was a strong result. This, along with a strong performance from equity investments in the US and India, protected the group's adjusted net asset value, which fell just 1p to 390p a share.
Brokerage Jefferies expects adjusted NAV to rise to 393p by the year-end (391p in 2011).
CAPITAL SHOPPING CENTRES (CSCG) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 323p | MARKET VALUE: | £2.79bn | |
| TOUCH: | 323.1-323.3p | 12M HIGH / LOW | 384p | 283p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 4.6% | TRADING PROP: | £4.1m | |
| PREMIUM TO NAV: | -6% | |||
| INVESTMENT PROP: | £6.92bn | NET DEBT: | 118% | |
| Half-year to Jun 30 | Net asset value (p) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 367 | 183 | 21.7 | 5.00 |
| 2012 | 344 | 70.2 | 8.90 | 5.00 |
| % change | -6 | -62 | -59 | |
Ex-div: 17 Oct Payment: 20 Nov | ||||
