REG - Great Portland Ests. - Q4 business update

Great Portland EstatesAnnouncement

10/04/2025 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
https://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20250410:nRSJ4005Ea&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 4005E  Great Portland Estates PLC  10 April 2025

 

10 April 2025

 

Q4 business update: strong end to target-beating leasing year

Great Portland Estates plc (GPE) publishes a leasing update for the quarter to
31 March 2025.

Toby Courtauld, Chief Executive, said:

"At the outset of the financial year, we set ourselves ambitious targets for
creating and leasing new Fully Managed spaces. As the year comes to a close,
the GPE team has delivered on this ambition with our NOI up 60% since
November. In one of our busiest quarters on record, we signed 32 new leases
securing £18.2 million, some 10% ahead of ERV, including strong leasing at
our recently completed 31 Alfred Place and SIX St Andrew Street, well ahead of
underwrite. As a result, our total leasing for the year stands at £37.7
million, 10.6% above ERV.

From here, we anticipate the pace to continue. GPE's premium HQ and Fully
Managed spaces are generating strong demand in a market that is increasingly
starved of high quality supply. With two further Fully Managed deliveries in
the summer, a new commitment made at The Courtyard and HQ development
completions from early next year, along with our recent acquisition at Chapel
Place, we are well positioned to take full advantage of favourable leasing
markets. Despite the volatile macro-economic backdrop, a supportive surplus of
demand over supply in our local markets gives us confidence in our positive
rental growth and TAR outlook."

Strong end to leasing year; beating ERV by 9.9% in quarter; 10.6% over the
year

·        32 new leases and renewals signed in the quarter generating
annual rent of £18.2 million (our share: £17.7 million), with market
lettings on average 9.9% ahead of March 2024 ERV;

·        In total, 74 new leases and renewals signed in the year
generating annual rent of £37.7 million (our share: £32.6 million), with
market lettings on average 10.6% ahead of March 2024 ERV, including:

o   41 Fully Managed leases signed, securing £23.4 million of rent at an
average £205 per sq ft, 10.1% ahead of the March 24 Fully Managed ERV;

o   Fully Managed NOI now £16.0 million; up 60% since Interim Results;

o   Six Ready to Fit leases signed securing £7.0 million, 17.1% above the
March 24 ERV, including the ITN deal at Gray's Inn Road, WC1; and

o   11 new retail leases securing £4.1 million of rent with market lettings
4.6% ahead of the March 2024 ERV.

·        Total space covered by new lettings, reviews and renewals was
359,800 sq ft;

·        Ten rent reviews were settled in the year, securing £10.0
million of annual rent (our share: £7.4 million); and

·        We have a further £14.6 million of rent under offer, with
market lettings 13.1% ahead of March 2024 ERV.

 

Leasing highlights in the quarter

In January, Independent Television News Limited (ITN) renewed both of its
leases for 117,000 sq ft of workspace at 200 & 214 Gray's Inn Road, WC1, a
287,900 sq ft media hub building owned by a 50:50 joint venture between GPE
and Ropemaker Properties (the property nominee of the BP Pension Fund). The
contracted annual rent will be £4.1 million (ahead of March 2024 ERV and
current passing rent) and will commence from March 2025 for a term of ten
years (with a break at year five). ITN will continue to occupy around 40% of
the total floor area across the two properties, where it will maintain its
production of news programming for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.

In March, we secured our largest Fully Managed deal to date, letting over
11,500 sq ft of Fully Managed space to FTSE 100 retailer Next at the newly
refurbished 31 Alfred Place, WC1. The space has been let on a five-year term,
ahead of ERV. Next has required additional office space to complement their
existing London offices and will be moving into the building at the end of
March to occupy a total of four floors, including the lower ground, duplex,
third and fourth floors.

To date we have seen strong leasing interest at our two newly completed Fully
Managed schemes at 31 Alfred Place and SIX refurbishments, which are now 74%
and 52% let, respectively. With strong demand for GPE's Fully Managed product
in these prime locations, confidence remains high for the leasing prospects of
our next building launches at 170 Piccadilly, SW1 and 141 Wardour Street, W1
this summer.

Acquisition of HQ development opportunity at One Chapel Place, W1

In March 2025, we acquired the freehold interest in One Chapel Place, W1 for
£56.0 million (£985 per sq ft on proposed NIA, 4.4% NIY). The 34,230 sq
ft building is fully let at an annual rent of c.£2.5 million per annum, with
the office leases due to expire in mid-2028.

The building is located in the heart of the West End, within walking distance
of Bond Street tube and Elizabeth line station. The building presents a
significant opportunity for additional massing, with existing plans targeting
an expansion to approximately 57,000 sq ft and provides GPE with an exciting
opportunity to create a highly sustainable best-in-class HQ redevelopment in
this prime London location. GPE plans to refine the existing designs to
enhance workspace quality, upgrade amenities, and maximise appeal for future
customers.

Good progress across development pipeline

In February, we received planning consent for a significant refurbishment of
The Courtyard building on Alfred Place, WC1. The building is within walking
distance of the Elizabeth line station at Tottenham Court Road and is part of
a growing cluster of GPE buildings on the street, including the recently
completed 31 Alfred Place and Whittington House.

The Courtyard will deliver best-in-class workspaces with high quality customer
amenities including a covered courtyard for events, a large roof terrace with
meeting suite, a premium arrival experience and re-configured modern retail
space. Enabling works are expected to commence shortly with completion
expected in Q2 2027.

We are also making good progress across our three on site HQ development
schemes. 2 Aldermanbury Square topped out in February and is on track for
completion and hand over to Clifford Chance in Q1 2026. Meanwhile, leasing
interest remains strong across our other developments: 30 Duke Street, St
James's, W1, where the office space is now under offer well ahead of
underwriting expectations, and Minerva House, SE1, which has leasing interest
from multiple parties for the entire building.

Full year results announcement

A provisional date has been set for GPE to announce its full year results on
21 May 2025, with the results presentation available on our website from
9.00am. www.gpe.co.uk/investors (http://www.gpe.co.uk/investors) .

 

 Great Portland Estates plc                                                                                                                                         +44                                   (0)                                   20                                    7647                                       3000
 Toby Courtauld, Chief Executive
 Nick Sanderson, Chief Financial & Operating Officer
 Stephen Burrows, Director of Investor Relations and Joint Director of Finance

 FGS Global                                                                                                                                                         +44                                   (0)                                   20                                    7251                                       3801
 James
 Murgatroyd
 Gordon
 Simpson

 

For further information see www.gpe.co.uk or follow us on X at @GPE_London

LEI Number: 213800JMEDD2Q4N1MC4

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  UPDUPUWCCUPAGQB