Yahoo Finance Interest rate hikes trigger 10% writedown of Helical’s London office portfolio
The value of London property developerHelical’s portfolio declined by 10.1% to £839.5 million, but CEO Gerald Kaye pointed out that still meant the company outperformed the average for the Central London market.
The developer, with properties including the JJ Mack Building in Farringdon, made a loss of £64.5 million, due to the writedown of its portfolio. But Kaye pointed out that the decline in value was lower than that experienced by many central London rivals.
“But underlying that we haven’t had a bad year,” Kaye told the Standard. “We made sales, we’ve done some good lettings, we’re seeing rental growth for the best-in-class assets.
“And the thing we’re most excited about is our development pipeline.”
Analysts at Peel Hunt said: “A strong pipeline of opportunity and an implied yield of 7.9% remains highly attractive.”
Helical was selected in Febeuary as Transport for London’s preferred investment partner for creating a number of new central London office schemes.
The partnership between TTL Properties and London-listed Helical, will see the pair work on the delivery of high-quality and sustainable office space above or close to certain Tube stations.
There are currently three projects planned, at Bank, Paddington and Southwark. But Kaye said he hoped to see more further down the line.
“We were delighted to be selected by TfL to be the JV partner for three over-station developments,” Kaye said. “Hopefully there will be further developments coming through.”
