Strong second half for Terrace Hill

Adjusted book value, which marks trading properties to their market value, rose 0.7 per cent to 28.3p as £11.8m of development profits were largely offset by writedowns on inactive land. Such revaluations have dogged Terrace Hill's reported profits for years, but chief executive Philip Leech hopes the trend should now start to reverse. "We've made so many provisions against our non-core assets it's hard to see how they could go further," he says.

The bulk of the year's development profits came from supermarkets. It started work on three major stores during the year, two for Sainsbury and one for Asda, and has a further three in the pipeline. Mr Leech admits the market has slowed since Tesco's high-profile strategic review last winter, but says demand remains strong for medium-sized sites that don't overlap with a supermarket's existing network. "Stores of over 100,000 square feet are a thing of the past," he says.

The company's hefty debt load is falling as it sells highly geared housing assets. Including debt held within the residential joint venture, the total now stands at £85.7m - a loan-to-value ratio of 66 per cent.

Broker Oriel Securities expects adjusted net assets of 29p for 2013 (from 28p for 2012).