The announcement comes ahead of an AGM this morning, and as the developer announced a new letting at The Bower in London, to Audio Network Limited, a global commercial music company, taking occupancy of the building to 96.6%.
Chief executive Matthew Bonning-Snook said, "It has been a strong start to the financial year as we continue to build upon our recent letting success at The Bower, including today鈥檚 announcement that we have let the 9,600 sq ft 12th Floor. This takes the total space let in the period to c.32,000 sq ft, with re-gears achieved on a further c.50,000 sq ft.
鈥淥ur development pipeline looks increasingly well timed and continues to progress at pace towards the delivery of best-in-class buildings into a supply constrained market, with both 10 King William Street and Brettenham House completing this year. With our development at Delta Paddington now out of the ground and our Southwark PBSA on track to receive Gateway 2 approval this year, we have a clear pathway to generating meaningful and sustainable returns.
鈥淥nce approved at the general meeting later today, we will return c.拢12m of the realised profits from the sale of 100 New Bridge Street to shareholders, adding to our ongoing 拢5m share buyback programme and demonstrating our disciplined approach to capital allocation.
鈥淲e believe the severe undersupply of well-located, best-in-class offices will continue for a number of years. With our track record of navigating a challenging planning environment, working with a select group of top tier contractors and maintaining deep lender relationships which enable us to secure accretive financing, combined with an ability to access new sites through our flexible approach to partnerships, we are ideally placed to benefit from this dynamic.鈥�
The final dividend for the year ended 31 March 2026 of 1.00p, if approved by shareholders at the AGM, will be paid on 3 August 2026. This will take the total dividend for the year to 2.50p.
The company had also, on May 22, proposed to return up to 拢17m to shareholders through a combination of a capital return B Share Scheme (拢12m) and a share buyback programme (拢5m). This amount reflects over half of the 拢31m profit realised on the completion of the sale of 100 New Bridge Street. The 拢5m share buyback programme commenced on 8 June 2026 and to date 1,109,980 shares have been acquired at a weighted average price of 189.71p.
The proposed return of approximately 拢12m of capital to shareholders through the issue of a new class of redeemable B Shares, which the company expects to redeem in cash for 9.72 pence per existing ordinary share, is subject to approval at the meeting. This will be followed by a 100 for 105 share consolidation of the company's ordinary share capital, subject to approval, to maintain share price comparability.
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