UK's Landsec posts smaller annual loss as market recovery gathers pace

(Reuters) - British commercial property firm Land Securities Group posted a narrower annual loss on Friday, aided by encouraging rental growth and occupancy levels, while a key metric that gauges the value of its buildings topped market view.

The London-headquartered company said its EPRA net tangible assets per share - an industry measure that reflects the value of its buildings - fell 8% to 859 pence for the year ended March 31, beating company-compiled analysts' consensus of 852 pence.

High interest rates and incessant macro-economic worries have dampened a tentative recovery in the highly leveraged British commercial property sector from pandemic lows, while the office space portfolio has struggled amid evolving work habits.

"Our continued operational outperformance, with rising occupancy and positive rental uplifts in retail and London, is driving robust like-for-like rental income growth," CEO Mark Allan said in a statement.

The company posted an annual pre-tax loss of 341 million pounds ($431.8 million), compared with a loss of 622 million pounds a year earlier.

The London-headquartered firm, which completed the sale of an 18-strong portfolio of its UK hotels to Ares Real Estate for 400 million pounds last week, said it expects the activity levels to pick up, spurred by relative stabilisation of long-term rates.

($1 = 0.7896 pounds)

(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)