UK's biggest REIT reports record loss

EDINBURGH: Land Securities Group Plc, the UK's largest real estate investment trust, reported a record annual loss as the value of properties from Birmingham's Bullring mall to Cardinal Place in London slumped.

Land Securities fell as much as 8.7 percent in London trading after the company said its net loss for fiscal 2009 widened to 5.19 billion pounds ($7.9 billion), or 999 pence a share, from 830.8 million pounds, or 160.9 pence, a year earlier. The loss exceeded the median estimate of 4.95 billion pounds from six analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

Owners of commercial properties in the UK incurred the biggest losses since the 1970s last year as investors struggled to obtain loans and tenants went out of business in the recession. Land Securities said its assets depreciated by 4.7 billion pounds, or 34 percent, in the year ended March 31, forcing the company to sell more shares to investors and cut its quarterly dividend.