Morning everyone, it's Rob Wilkinson here, and thanks for joining. Obviously I'm conscious it's a very busy day, a lot of results going on, we'll keep things nice and short.

Obviously want to focus on your Q&A. Without further ado, please do come forward if you have questions.

Happy to answer them. Obviously Himanshu is with me as well.

Hi Rob, hi Himanshu. Thanks for taking the question.

Just on Arndale, obviously this is an asset you had a look at last year, decided to not go ahead with it. I think some of the concerns at the time were the timing of reversion, the age of the asset, some of the capex that might have been required.

Could you just sort of touch on what's changed in your thinking between then and now, and also on the ownership structure and management structure, how you see that sort of playing out? Because if I understand correctly, it wouldn't directly come with 100% control of the management.

Morning, Zach. Thank you for the question.

You're right. The asset was put on the market, or the interest we're acquiring was put on the market last summer at an asking price of £237 million, and we participated in that process with others and got through to the second round.

In the second round, there was a timeline set out for the physical due diligence on the asset, which is something that we were not prepared to work towards, and I think the same was felt by others. In effect, that process was terminated and the sale did not go forward.

We on our side, though, have targeted this asset for some time, and so we stayed very much in contact with the vendors, and we were therefore able to effectively agree a deal off-market to acquire the interest, which is the purpose of obviously today's acquisition. It was nothing to do with the asset at all.

It was simply that the process was not one that we were comfortable participating in, and I think the others were feeling the same way. We're very excited about now being able to do so, as I said, on a bilateral basis.

In terms of the management, yes, it's a sort of joint ownership and joint management with M&G, and obviously, they're a long-term investor like ourselves. We have had some discussions with them already around the business plan and strategy, and we're very much aligned with that.

We will be looking to work with them as our partners to continue to deliver value on the centre and very much, I think, aligned in that respect and so very comfortable with them as our partners alongside us.

Great. The yield that's reported there is yield, does that include any assumptions on sort of capex backlog or sort of maintenance capex that might be required in in the next few years?

There's no immediate urgent capex required. The fabric of the building is in good condition.

The capex that we're setting out in the business plan is predominantly accretive, linked to leasing and improving the tenant mix within the scheme. There's a little bit of more defensive capex, but that's really kind of public realm stuff.

The entrances and the streetscape, we'd like to look to improve the wayfinding, and then the food court, I think, at the upper end of the mall definitely needs some investment. It's kind of ordinary course of business capex that we would have across our portfolio as a whole.

Great. Thanks.

Morning. Apologies if this was just asked.

I got kicked off the call, I missed the previous questions. Just on the increase to the guidance, the underlying guidance for FY 2026, can you just talk us through the key kind of drivers behind that?

Then it would also just be interesting to hear the kind of key assumptions behind the medium-term earnings and dividend growth targets you're setting, kind of what kind of like-for-like net rental income, for example, you're assuming in terms of the growth rates there? Thank you.

Morning, James, Himanshu here. Thanks for your question.

The upgraded guidance today reflects, first of all, the benefit of a small number of kind of one-offs in the first half, the settlement of long-standing rates rebates, that's just over a couple of million, but fundamentally the upgrade is driven by strong underlying performance in leasing and that driving increased occupancy into the second half. As we do that, of course, void costs become service charge income, and we also see the benefit of all of the flurry of openings that we've had over the course of the year driving through to share of turnover rent.

That is why it's not 64, first half times two, but nonetheless an upgrade from the previously guided 120 million of earnings up to 125. Then when you add the 7 on for today's acquisition of Arndale, then 132 million guidance, up 27% year-on-year.

Second part of your question was on medium-term guidance. The medium-term guidance, the first thing to highlight is it's now off the 2025 base.

Our previous guidance was at the time of the Value Retail disposal, and since then, of course, we've consolidated our JV. Off that higher base, we're still maintaining that 6 to 8% both EPS and DPS CAGR and TAR of around 10% over the medium term, which we consider to be 5 years.

The drivers of that, again, it's the fundamental strength of the portfolio. We see the opportunity for a similar 4 to 5% growth in 2027 on a like-for-like basis, and you'll recall we have a number of repositions coming on stream in 2027 like further repositioning at The Oracle, Quakers Exchange at Cabot Circus, and also the opening of our Cergy extension, they'll all be drivers.

Beyond that, 2028 and beyond, we see inflation, inflation-plus growth coming through by continuing to kind of push rental tension. All of that kind of growth then translates into the reduction of our EPRA cost ratio as we get fundamental operational gearing.

Take Arndale as an example this morning, we will not be adding any incremental resource as we onboard the co-management of Arndale this morning. That operational gearing then drives through to the growth in earnings and then dividends to follow.

good morning all. Thank you for taking my question, and congratulations on the transaction.

Maybe briefly getting back to that medium-term target, because just so I understand it clearly, because at the full year, I think you actually upped it, and I appreciate the base is different, although 2025 was not per se the year with the highest growth yet, that's more to come in the coming years. Is maybe also the forward-looking period extended, or why is it now 6 to 8 to 8 instead of 8 to 10?

It simply reflects the roll-forward of another year, and then off the higher base, Veronique. Remember when we guided at the time of the Value Retail, we gave an underlying baseline of around 85 million of underlying earnings excluding the impact of Value Retail.

It's a simple roll-forward of a year, and then we always look to 5 years on our medium-term guidance.

Thank you. Then perhaps on the balance sheet, through this acquisition, you overequitize, reduce your LTV.

Is that to create more firepower for you, or is it also to maybe take a more conservative stance on the balance sheet at the moment and for a longer period reduce your leverage metrics?

It's Rob here. It's a little bit of both in reality, Veronique, because it clearly does bring the credit metrics down.

That said, we've been very clear, Himanshu and I have been very comfortable where they were previously, that's not the concern, this just gives us the ability to bring them down. It also gives us some optionality on funding going forward if a transaction were to become available and that the execution required quick sort of timing, then it gives us some flexibility to acquire further, gives us around 200 million sterling or so of additional capacity to keep us within, again, credit metrics we'd be very comfortable.

It's a little bit of both in a way.

That's clear. Thank you.

Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions.

Firstly, obviously the results were pretty good and income growth has been pretty strong, but the capital return is still mildly negative. Is that just a factor of yield or is there anything else going on there?

Sure, it's Rob again here. Thank you for the question.

Valuations at half year were flat and I think reflective of two things really. Obviously the situation in the Middle East, which I think has created an element of uncertainty until perhaps more recently, which I'll come back to.

The sort of yields were kept flat to the half year, and at the beginning of the year, I anticipated there might be some compression, but then I think the Middle East has changed that perspective. We don't see decompression, but they have flatlined the yields to the first half.

That said, I think two things. One, I've just mentioned that we have seen a renewed level of activity within our market in the last 6 to 8 weeks, and it's my anticipation that that could lead to some yield compression in the second half of this year.

I think we could see some uplift coming through. The other aspect is ERVs, where we continue, as I've mentioned a bit earlier in terms of our spreads, to see significant spread above ERV at 9% to this first half.

We expect that to kind of flow through into the valuations as well in due course. Flat to half year, but anticipation of some uplift in the second half.

Thank you. My second question is regarding your debt maturity profile.

Obviously you have the Eurobond coming due next year and I believe you have sort of pre-funded it earlier as well. Obviously if you have opportunities coming through, cash is fungible effectively, do you have any plans to maybe come to market, issue in either sterling or in euros in the near future?

Thanks for your question. The Eurobond matures next June.

As you've rightly identified, we've pre-funded part of that, the remaining needs to be funded, and we'll be in the market at the appropriate time. You'll note that the kind of June issuance we got away at 3.875.

Had we been a month earlier or a month later, that probably would have begun with a 4. As we have an EMTN programme in place which allows us to respond to the market with agility.

We'll just try and pick the right timing for that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you all again for attending. Again, we're delighted to present the strong results we have and, of course, the acquisition of 50% of Arndale and the equity raising associated with that.

Again, thank you for all your support and look forward to continuing to work together. Thank you.

Thank you.