Great Portland Estates on Monday reported record lettings at its buildings in central London, saying the commercial property market is rebounding after work-from-home guidance left offices empty.
Since October 1, Great Portland Estates has agreed 17 new lettings for 102,100 square feet of space, generating an annual rent of £5.5 million, it said.
In total, Great Portland has now signed 460,900 square feet of new lettings since the start of the financial year on April, generating a combined annual rent of £32.5 million. This surpassed its previous record leasing high of £31.8 million in 2016 with two months of the financial year still remaining, it noted.
Last week, Great Portland said it let the final office space at its Hanover Square development in west London to private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co Partners.
The company said it is seeing strong demand for its prime Grade A and Flex office products in London. It has 94,500 square feet currently under offer for a combined rent of £6.2 million. It noted that December quarter rent collection was in line with the previous quarter.
‘It is a significant achievement to deliver record leasing in a period marked by such economic and social disruption, which is a testament to both the quality of the spaces we have been delivering and the dedication and hard work of the GPE team,’ Chief Executive Officer Toby Courtauld said.
‘Absent a resurgence of the pandemic, our confidence is building for the remainder of 2022, as we expect the combination of economic growth, a return to normal trading conditions, and central London’s magnetic appeal to be positive for our markets.’
Great Portland shares were up 0.1% at 736.00 pence early Monday.
Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.5% at 7,551.06
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Hang Seng: marginally higher, up 6.26 points at 24,579.55
Nikkei 225: closed down 0.7% at 27,248.87
S&P/ASX 200: closed down 0.1% at 7,110.80
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DJIA: closed down 21.42 points, or 0.1%, at 35,089.74
S&P 500: closed up 23.09 points, or 0.5%, at 4,500.53
Nasdaq Composite: closed up 219.19 points, or 1.6%, at 14,098.01
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EUR: down at $1.1430 ($1.1443)
GBP: flat at $1.3533 ($1.3535)
USD: flat at JP¥115.26 (JP¥115.25)
GOLD: up at $1,811.56 per ounce ($1,804.75)
OIL (Brent): down at $93.19 a barrel ($93.35)
(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Monday’s key economic events still to come
1500 EST US consumer credit
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China’s service sector saw growth slow at the start of 2022 due to an uptick in Covid-19 cases across the globe, survey data from Caixin showed. The business activity index fell to 51.4 points in January from 53.1 in December. As the reading remained above the no-change mark of 50.0, it signalled the sector continued to expand in January, but at a slower pace than December. Firms highlighted that the pandemic and subsequent measures to contain the virus weighed on growth. New export orders fell for the first time in four months, and at the quickest pace since October 2020, as businesses pointed towards damped international demand due to Covid cases overseas. The composite output index - a weighted average of the services and manufacturing purchasing managers’ indices - fell to 50.1 in January from 53.0 in December. Figures last week showed the manufacturing PMI fell to 49.1 in January from 50.9 December.
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The German industrial sector rounded off 2021 on a downbeat note, with production remaining below pre-pandemic levels. Data from Destatis showed industrial production in December was down 0.3% month-on-month, after 0.3% growth in November. December was expected to show growth of 0.4%, according to FXStreet-cited consensus. Annually, output fell 4.1% after November’s 2.2% decline. For 2021 a a whole, production was up 3.0% on a pandemic-battered 2020, but 5.5% below 2019, a Covid-free year. Compared with February 2020, the month before lockdown restrictions were imposed in Germany, production was 6.9% lower.
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UK house prices continued to climb in January, boosted by a shortage in available properties, figures from mortgage lender Halifax showed. On an annual basis, the Halifax UK house price index rose by 9.7% in January, the same pace as in December. However, the latest reading missed the market forecast, cited by FXStreet, for an 11% increase. UK house prices rose 0.3% month-on-month in January, slowing sharply from 1.1% in December. This print missed the market estimate of 0.7%. It was also the smallest monthly increase since June 2021.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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Berenberg raises Phoenix Group Holdings to ’buy’ (’hold’) - target 815 (790) pence
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JPMorgan reinitiates Prudential with ’overweight’ - price target 1,550 pence
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JPMorgan reinitiates Aviva with ’overweight’ - price target 510 pence
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JPMorgan reinitiates M&G with ’underweight’ - price target 200 pence
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey promoted Jennie Daly to chief executive officer, effective from the conclusion of the annual general meeting on April 26 to replace the outgoing Pete Redfern. Daly is currently operations director of Taylor Wimpey and a member of the board of directors. She joined Taylor Wimpey in 2014 from Redrow, where she was managing director of its Harrow Estates business.
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Reckitt Benckiser is weighing options for its infant nutrition unit, including a potential sale, Bloomberg reported on Friday. Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg said Reckitt is reviewing the business globally and has been informally gauging buyer interest in the operations. The business could attract offers from private equity firms or rival baby food makers, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Bloomberg noted the sale would complete a reversal of Reckitt’s largest-ever purchase, the $17 billion acquisition of Mead Johnson Nutrition, made five years ago under former Chief Executive Officer Rakesh Kapoor. His successor, Laxman Narasimhan, sold the Chinese infant formula business to local buyout firm Primavera Capital for $2.2 billion last year, exiting one of its largest markets.
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Namibia’s state-owned oil company on Friday said oil major Shell and Qatar Energy, the state owned petroleum company of Qatar, had discovered light oil deposits offshore, but had yet to determine how large or viable they were. ‘We are pleased to announce that the Graff-1 deep-water exploration well, 270 kilometres from the town of Oranjemund, has made a discovery of light oil in both primary and secondary targets,’ National Petroleum Corp of Namibia said in a statement. Further work is needed to determine the quality, size and viability of the reservoir, it added.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Pets at Home said it has hired Lyssa McGowan to be CEO with effect from June 1. McGowan will succeed Peter Pritchard, who in November had announced plans to step down in the summer. McGowan is the outgoing chief consumer officer at pay-television firm Sky UK. She will be appointed to the board as CEO-designate on April 25 prior to taking over as CEO. She was a non-executive director of Wm Morrison Supermarkets until its recent sale to CD&R.
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COMPANIES - MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg and members of the Nordic country’s indigenous Sami community on Saturday protested against a possible iron ore mine in northern Sweden. The government is next month to decide whether to greenlight the controversial project led by AIM-listed Beowulf Mining, which has promised to create 250 to 300 jobs in the area. But the Sami, an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 of whom live in Sweden, say the plan will prevent reindeer herding, disrupt hunting and fishing, and destroy the environment in their homeland. ‘We believe that the climate, the environment, clean air, water, reindeer herding, indigenous rights and the future of humanity should be prioritised above the short-term profit of a company,’ Thunberg said in an English-language video message. Beowulf on Monday said it has been invited by the Swedish government to provide comments on recent statements made in the media about the Kallak mine project. It is hopeful the government then will have all the information it needs to decide on the mine application soon, after a long wait.
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COMPANIES - GLOBAL
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Nippon Telegraph & Telephone posted year-to-date growth in profit and guided to an increased dividend. For the nine months to the end of December, the Tokyo-headquartered telecommunications firm saw revenue grow 2.1% year-on-year to JP¥8.923 trillion - around $77.38 billion - from JP¥8.738 trillion. This led to a 3.9% increase in pretax profit to JP¥1.554 trillion from JP¥1.495 trillion, while operating profit rose 2.5% to JP¥1.540 trillion from JP¥1.502 trillion. Forecasts for the year as a whole were edged up slightly, with revenue now seen at JP¥12.180 trillion versus JP¥12.000 trillion previously. Operating profit is expected at JP¥1.745 trillion, up from a prior forecast of JP¥1.730 trillion. NTT expects to pay a dividend to JY115.00 for the year, which would be up from JP¥105.00 paid out for the 2021 financial year.
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Monday’s shareholder meetings
Minds + Machines Group Ltd - GM re delisting from AIM
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