Intu profits double

Trafford Centre owner Intu Properties announced its annual results today, revealing an increase in overall profits last year to £364m, up significantly from £159m in 2012.

The £205m leap was due to a revaluation in Intu's property and financial assets.

The market value of Intu's investment properties was recorded as £7.6bn, an increase of £551m from the end of 2012. Net rental income was also up slightly from the previous year to £370m from £363m.

David Fischel, chief executive of Intu Properties, said: "Intu advanced significantly in 2013 with a rebranding, strategic acquisitions, debt refinancing, equity issuance and key planning consents for our £1.2bn development programme."

Intu said it currently has a high occupancy rate of 95%. There were 201 new long-term leases agreed with tenants during the course of the year. Tenants invested £70m on fitting out and improving their stores in 2013.

Fischel continued: "With the economy appearing to improve and total profit for the year including revaluations increased from £159m to £364m, we are prepared to withstand some minor reduction in like-for-like net rental income in the short term [like-for-like net rental income reduced by 1.9% largely due to the impact of tenant administrations in the first half of the year]. We continue to invest in our centres to drive their total returns through our robust asset management approach, tenant mix repositioning and development projects."

Shares in Intu were up 4p to 330p this morning.