Capital & Counties Properties (Capco) said on Wednesday that the total value of its property portfolio dropped 0.4% to £3.3bn in the six months to June, from a year ago.
The UK-based property group, which has suffered collateral damage because of uncertainty around Brexit, has Covent Garden and Earls Court Properties, which it considers the crown jewels in its portfolio.
Capco is evaluating a possible splitting, which will result in the two assets being separately listed.
While the value of Covent Garden increased 1.6% to £2.6bn in the review period, the valuation of Earls Court dropped 7% to £706.6m.
Capco said in a statement that uncertainties in the broader political and economic environment continued to affect sentiment around London’s residential property.
The value of the company’s shares has not been able to recover from Brexit, whose shape is yet to be known. The price collapsed from R77.55 to R49.80 on JSE.
Net rental income was up 11% to £28.3m on a like-for-like basis and 21% in absolute terms.
"Capco has had an active start to the year across its two prime central London estates. At Covent Garden we delivered another period of strong performance and an increase in value, with excellent demand across all uses driving 21% overall growth in net rental income," CEO Ian Hawksworth said in a statement.
"At Earls Court, the consented land is now ready for development and we have realised significant proceeds over the last 12 months from the sale of the Empress State Building and continued sales at Lillie Square."
The underlying earnings per share dropped 0.5p, from 1.3p in the year-ago period. The interim dividend was kept steady at 0.5p per share.
The share initially gained as much as 2% in early trade before subsequently losing ground, to trade marginally lower to R49.80 on the local bourse, valuing Capco at R43.2bn
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