Profit before tax for the year to 31 March 2018 was £30.8m (2017: £41.6m). Total Property Return reduced to £68.8m (2017: £79.9m) and included net rents of £36.1m (2017: £47.0m). Lettings at One Creechurch Place, London EC3, enabled the Group to recognise development profits of £10.2m in the year. However, a loss of £13.0m on the sale of the Retirement Villages portfolio plus provisions of £4.1m (2017: £12.8m) turned this profit into a net development loss of £8.0m (2017: £5.7m). The gain on sale and revaluation of the investment portfolio contributed £40.7m (2017: £38.6m).

Net finance costs of £35.2m were substantially higher than in 2017 (£21.2m) and included an £8.7m premium payable on the repayment of the Group’s £80m Retail Bond. This redemption, made 27 months before the Bond was due for repayment, will save annual interest costs of £4.8m. The Income Statement benefited from the shortening of the maturity period for the Group’s remaining interest rate swaps and an increase in medium and long-term interest rates which led to a £4.0m credit (2017: £0.8m) arising from the valuation of the Company’s derivative financial instruments. The revaluation of the Company’s Convertible Bond provided a charge of £1.6m (2017: credit of £3.0m). Recurring administration costs were marginally higher at £11.0m (2017: £10.8m). Performance related awards were substantially lower at £1.7m (2017: £6.9m) with National Insurance on these awards of £0.1m (2017: £0.7m).

The reduction in annual finance costs from the repayment of debt during the year coupled with recent action taken to reduce performance related administration costs both contribute to lower central costs going forward. With net rental income increasing towards an ERV for the portfolio of £60m over the next few years, the Board is confident that the Group’s earnings will increase significantly in the near future. This expectation has led the Board to recommend to Shareholders an increase in the final dividend of 12.9% to 7.00p (2017: 6.20p) which, together with the interim dividend of 2.50p paid in December 2017, takes the total dividend for the year to 9.50p (2017: 8.60p), an overall increase of 10.5%.

We measure our performance at both portfolio and Company level, seeking to outperform the relevant sector indices and our peer group in the medium and long term.

IFRS basic earnings per share reduced to 22.3p (2017: 34.0p) with EPRA loss per share of 7.0p (2017: earnings of 0.5p), reflecting a fall in net rental income and increased development losses in the year following the sale of a third of the investment portfolio and the retirement village portfolio. On a like-for-like basis, the investment portfolio increased by 4.5% (5.0% including sales and purchases). Sales during the year offset this growth in values contributing to an overall reduction in the portfolio value to £910m (31 March 2017: £1,205m). The unleveraged return of our property portfolio, as measured by IPD, was 11.1% (2017: 9.4%), compared to 9.3% (2017: 4.4%) for the benchmark index. Total Accounting Return, being the increase in Shareholders’ Funds before dividends, was 5.3% (2017: 8.3%). EPRA net asset value per share was down 1.1% to 468p (31 March 2017: 473p), with EPRA triple net asset value per share up 1.4% to 448p (31 March 2017: 442p).

The Company uses gearing on a tactical basis throughout the property cycle, being raised to accentuate performance when property returns are judged to materially outperform the cost of debt and lowered when seeking to reduce exposure to the property market.

During the year to 31 March 2018, the Group sold £328m of investment properties and £156m of development stock whilst exiting the industrial, retail and retirement village sectors. These sales, net of investment in the portfolio of £172m, were used to reduce net borrowings by £262m, significantly reducing future finance costs.

The transformation of the Group has allowed us to significantly reduce our gearing levels with our see-through loan to value ratio (“LTV”), down from 55.0% two years ago to 39.9% at the year-end (31 March 2017: 51.4%) and 37.1% on a pro-forma basis, taking into account the deferred consideration from the sale of the retirement village portfolio due in November 2018. Our see-though net gearing, the ratio of net borrowings to the net asset value of the Group, has fallen from 142% to 68% (31 March 2017: 120%) over the same period.

During the year, the average debt maturity reduced to 3.0 years (31 March 2017: 3.6 years), with no secured loan repayable before November 2019, whilst maintaining the average cost of debt at 4.3% (31 March 2017: 4.3%). The Company has a significant level of liquidity with cash and unutilised bank facilities of £277m (31 March 2017: £267m) to fund capital works on its portfolio and future acquisitions.

In February 2018, the Group announced that Michael Slade will step down from his role as Chairman of Helical at the 2019 AGM and Richard Grant, current Chairman of the Audit Committee, was appointed his successor and Deputy Chairman until he assumes the role of Chairman next year. In addition, Richard Cotton succeeded Richard Gillingwater as Senior Independent Director. Richard Gillingwater has indicated that he will not seek re-election as a Non-Executive Director at the 2018 AGM. On behalf of the whole Board, I would like to thank Richard for his commitment, support and guidance during his six years on the Board of Helical.

We believe that London will remain the best source of potential capital gains and development profits for the foreseeable future with Manchester being the most dynamic regional city in the UK. Our ongoing focus is on maximising the potential of our current portfolio, both in terms of generating development and valuation surpluses but also on capturing the ERV of the assets we own to ensure a sustainable surplus of rental income over all costs. We also continue to seek exciting opportunities to add to our portfolio of assets, a recent example being the over-ground development of the Farringdon East Elizabeth Line Station. Our much-reduced gearing levels have increased the Group’s firepower and balance sheet capacity significantly and will enable us to add to our pipeline of opportunities in the future.

Our newly refocused and reprioritised portfolio is a select showcase for London and Manchester. We create buildings for today’s occupiers who demand more inspiring space with distinctive architectural detail, carefully curated public realm, market leading amenities, high quality management and our flexible approach to leasing. Applying this philosophy, we seek to maximise Shareholder returns through delivering income growth from creative asset management and capital gains from our development activity as we continue to drive the future vision of Helical.