The British Land Company (LSE:BLND) expects FY26 Underlying EPS of 28.9p and is upgrading FY27 guidance to at least 30.5p (previously 30.2p), after a year of stronger-than-expected leasing in its London campuses and retail parks that has driven like‑for‑like net rental growth of 6%.
“This has been an excellent year of leasing, reflecting our market‑leading position in campuses and retail parks, where availability for high‑quality space in the right locations is near record lows, and occupational fundamentals continue to strengthen, despite ongoing macroeconomic volatility,” Simon Carter, Chief Executive, said.
Operational detail underpins the upgrade: campus leasing reached 1.69m sq ft across 215 deals (12% like‑for‑like rental growth in campuses), with Q4 accounting for c.834,000 sq ft; retail parks are virtually full at 99% occupancy and delivered H2 leasing 6.3% ahead of previous passing rents. Portfolio leasing totaled 3.8m sq ft, with a further 1.1m sq ft under offer.
Financials and balance sheet highlights for the year to 31 March: Underlying Profit £294m (FY25: £279m); EPRA NTA 590p; total accounting return 8.1%; portfolio values +2.3%; ERV +4.9%; loan‑to‑value 39.2% and Group net debt to EBITDA c.7.7x. The Life Science REIT acquisition completed on 20 April and is expected to be c.1% EPS accretive in FY27.
British Land will publish preliminary results on 20 May.
