Defiant Ritblat rules out buyback

BRITISH Land chairman and chief executive John Ritblat has ruled out share buybacks in the foreseeable future as he unveiled a strong set of full-year figures.

He promised to deliver a detailed response to rebel shareholder proposals by 17 June. But Ritblat showed no signs that he will give in to their demands. These include removing the board from direct management of the portfolio, and a 10% buyback of shares. Ritblat said: 'It is not appropriate to buy back shares at the moment. We're in great shape. We need our capital as we have immediate development costs of £2bn.'

He said there were only two circumstances in which he would consider such action - if the company had excess capital or if the shares offered a better investment opportunity than new property investment. Nor is Ritblat prepared to accept the challenge to management from rebel shareholder Laxey Partners.

With pre-tax profits and net asset value at the top end of analysts' expectations Ritblat said he was feeling 'very relaxed' about the forthcoming challenge.

The net asset value of the property portfolio divided by the shares - the industry's favourite measure of growth - was up 3.7% to 803p. Profits rose 96% to £171.3m after one-offs. But the gap between the value of the assets and the stock grew as the shares fell 6p to 618p.

Gross rents for the 12 months to 31 March were up 8% at £513.8m and the portfolio's value rose 0.8% to £9.3bn. A final dividend of 8.6p a share makes a total of 12.4p, up 7.8%.

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