Last edited 14 Jan 2015

British Land

British Land are one of Europe’s largest publicly-listed real estate companies.

They own, manage, develop and finance a portfolio of commercial property, focused on retail locations around the UK and offices and residential in London. They have total assets in the UK, owned or managed of £19.0 billion (British Land share of which is £12.8 billion), as valued at 30 September 2014.

Their properties are home to over 1,000 different organisations and receive over 340 million visits each year. They state that their objective is to deliver long-term, sustainable returns to shareholders, by focusing on ‘Places People Prefer’, creating outstanding places which make a positive difference to people’s everyday lives.

Their customer orientation enables them to develop a deep understanding of the people who use their places. They employ a small team of experts, who have the skills to translate this understanding into creating the right places, and have an efficient capital structure which is able to effectively finance these places.

UK Retail assets account for 54% of their portfolio. As the UK’s largest listed owner and manager of retail space, their portfolio is matched to the different ways people shop, from major regional shopping centres to single-occupier locations. They are focused on being the destination of choice for retailers and their customers by being the best provider of spaces and services.

Comprising around 25 million sq ft of retail space across retail parks, superstores, shopping centres, department stores and leisure assets, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats.

British Land’s Office and Residential portfolio, which accounts for 46% of their portfolio is focused on London, where they have a mix of completed buildings and a pipeline of development projects. Increasingly, offices are in mixed-use environments which include retail and residential elements. Their 7.9 million sq ft of office space includes Regent’s Place and Paddington Central in the West End and Broadgate.

They believe that leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive performance and is core to the delivery of their overall objective of driving shareholder value.