Shaftesbury warns on profits, suspends dividend
Shaftesbury said on Tuesday that it was scrapping its dividend and deferring rent payments for commercial tenants amid the Covid-19 outbreak, as it warned that full-year EPRA earnings would miss market expectations.
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The FTSE 250 real estate investment trust, which owns a 15.2-acre portfolio in London's West End, said it will defer rent payments for commercial occupiers "to ease their short-term cash flow issues" so they are in a position to resume trading once restrictions are lifted.
The company also outlined measures to preserve liquidity over the coming months. These include the suspension of the interim dividend and a moratorium on all non-essential expenditure, new schemes and acquisitions. In addition, it said £150m has been drawn against its committed revolving credit facilities, increasing its available cash to around £179 million.
Shaftesbury warned that EPRA earnings for the year ending 30 September 2020 are now set to be "significantly below" market expectations but that it is not yet possible to quantify the impact of the Covid-19 restrictions.
Chief executive Brian Bickell said: "We are committed to supporting our occupiers and residents through this period of unprecedented upheaval in normal patterns of life and business activity. The ability of our commercial tenants to resume trading when current restrictions begin to be relaxed is our priority.
"The global appeal and resilience of the West End and our locations, together with our initiatives in recent years to ensure our finances are robust, underpin the intrinsic worth of our impossible-to-replicate portfolio and the long-term value of our business."