London-focused offices specialist Helical has recorded a loss in the six months to 30 September, but remains upbeat on a wholesale “return to the office” in the future.
The firm swung to a pretax loss of £12.7m during the period, compared with a £13.1m profit last year.
The value of its investment portfolio stood at £885.9m at the end of September, down 1.1% on a March book value of £895.7m. This included a £4.6m net deficit on revaluation.
The firm’s EPRA NAV per share dropped by 2.2% to 500p during the six months, compared with March.
The company’s share of net rental income fell to £11.9m, from £13m in 2019. Its portfolio was 81% let at the end of September.
So far it has collected 86.8% of September rents owed. The firm expects to collect between 91% and 94% through further cash receipts and monthly payments by the end of December.
Its loan-to-value ratio inched up to 32.2% at the half-year mark, from 31.4% in March. Net gearing rose to 51%, from 49.9%. However, it has exchanged on the sale of three Manchester offices, which will bring these down to 22.4% and 31.2% respectively on a pro forma basis when it completes.
During the period Helical completed its £48.5m sale of 90 Bartholomew Close, EC1, to La Francaise Real Estate Partners.
Gerald Kaye, chief executive, said that the disadvantages of working at home, with its “inadequate ergonomics, lack of divide between work and home life, potential mental health issues caused by isolation from colleagues and… its ever decreasing productivity as collaboration and creativity diminish, will provide the impetus for a return to the office as the place of work”.
He said: “Our experience of the pandemic has reinforced our view that our investment in multilet offices in well-located and accessible grade-A buildings, incorporating the latest in sustainable building design, offering state-of-the-art technology with occupier health and wellbeing at their core, provides the most resilient defence against adversity and the best opportunity for continued growth.”
Kaye added: “We see a divergence between these grade-A buildings and the rest from both a capital value and rental growth perspective; this pattern will accelerate as tenants seek to leave buildings which are not fit for purpose in the search for working environments that match the expectations of their employees.”
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