Leeds-based Town Centre Securities considers opportunities to 'selectively acquire assets'

TCS also announced the “expected sale” this month of part of Whitehall Road, Leeds for £13.0m as it published its results for the six months ended December 31 2022. Three properties were sold during the half year for a total of £20.3m

Commenting on the results, Chairman and Chief Executive, Edward Ziff, said: “It has been another six months where we have further strengthened TCS through our disposal programme, the resulting repayment and redeployment of borrowings, and a successful tender offer.

“We continue to see further trading recoveries in both our car park and hotel operations whilst the property disposals have as expected reduced the scale of the property rental business; at the same time we continue to navigate our way through the current challenging macro-economic conditions given its impact on our tenants, the valuation reduction of our property portfolio and impairments to our car park portfolio.

"With low levels of bank debt and reduced loan to value I am confident that we are in a strong position to face up to the challenges that may present themselves. ”

“The cost of living crisis, rising utility costs, interest rates increases and the ongoing Russia/Ukraine conflict are affecting all stakeholders and we remain committed to supporting them, in particular our dedicated employees. We continue to focus on maintaining good landlord-tenant relationships, with open dialogue and collaboration cornerstones of this approach.”

“Having undertaken such a successful disposal programme, our attention is now turning to opportunities to selectively acquire assets and invest in our development programme, ever mindful of adding value whilst retaining robust finances.”

TCS said the statutory loss for the six months ended December 31 2022 was £19.1m. In a statement, TCS said: “The key drivers for this loss were the valuation decreases on investment properties of £14.2m and the impairment of car parking assets totalling £2.7m.

"The like for like portfolio decreased in value by 7.0 per cent over the six months under review as a result of investor and market sentiment around the UK’s economic outlook.”

It added: "TCS owns a significant development pipeline which gives the company a clear and material opportunity for future growth.

"The current pipeline, following the sale of the Port Street surface car park in December 2022, has an estimated gross development value (GDV) of over £550m, with the majority of the developments already being part of the relevant local government approved strategic planning frameworks or actually in possession of detailed planning permission.”

However, TCS said it takes a conservative approach to development and never over-commits itself.