Directorate Change

RNS Number : 0474P

British Land Co PLC

19 October 2012

 



British Land Executive Board Announcement

The British Land Company PLC announces that Steve Smith, an executive director of the Company, will be standing down from the Board on 31st March 2013 and leave British Land on 30th June 2013. Steve joined British Land in January 2010, as Chief Investment Officer with responsibility for the group's property and investment strategy. Since then the group has announced and made significant progress on a £1.2 billion Central London office development programme, invested £1.1 billion in acquisitions and disposed of £600 million of mainly retail assets.

Chris Grigg, CEO of British Land said: "Steve joined British Land at an important time for the business. His property expertise has been invaluable to the business and I am grateful for his contribution and personal support over that time. He leaves with the Board's thanks and best wishes for the future."

Steve Smith commented, "British Land is in great shape and I believe that in the coming period the company will continue to build on its excellent performance record. My very best wishes to Chris and the team."

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                                0207 467 2942

Media

Pip Wood, British Land                                                   020 7467 2838

Gordon Simpson, Finsbury                                             020 7251 3801

Notes to Editors

About British Land

British Land is one of Europe's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) with total assets, owned or managed, of £15.8 billion (British Land share £10.3 billion), as valued at 31 March 2012. Through our property and finance expertise we attract experienced partners to create properties and environments which are home to over 1,000 different organisations and visited by over 300 million people each year. Our property portfolio is focused on prime retail locations and Central London offices which attract high quality occupiers committed to long leases. Our occupancy rate of 98.1% and average lease length to first break of 11.3 years are among the highest of the major UK REITs.

Retail assets account for 61% of our portfolio with around 27 million sq ft of retail space across 89 retail parks, 97 superstores, 12 shopping centres and 10 department stores. The retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats and our active asset management delivers space which is attractive and meets the needs of both retailers and consumers. Over 80% of our retail parks have open A1 consent.

London offices, located in the City and West End, comprise 34% of the portfolio (which will rise to an estimated 40% on completion of current developments). Our 7 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share) and Regent's Place in the West End. We have committed £1.2 billion to create Central London's largest committed office development programme which will deliver 2.3 million sq ft of high quality space by 2014, including a 700,000 sq ft building at 5 Broadgate, the 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall Building in London's insurance district and a 500,000 sq ft mixed office and residential scheme at Regent's Place in the West End.

Managing our environmental, economic and social impacts is central to the way we do business and deliver value for our shareholders. We assess the issues that matter most to us and our stakeholders on an on-going basis and, where appropriate, adjust our strategic focus to reflect this. For the coming year we have adjusted our priorities to focus on managing our buildings efficiently, supporting communities, developing sustainable buildings and engaging our staff. For each of these priorities we are targeting our efforts and resources at initiatives where we can achieve the biggest impacts.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com.

 

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