British Land Co announced that it returned to pre-tax profits in the first half of 2022, mainly due to the strong performance of the retail-park portfolio, while increasing the dividend.

The real estate company announced pre-tax profits of 3 373 million ($ 500.9 million) for the period ended September 30, compared to a loss of 7 757 million for the first half of fiscal year 2021.

Underlying earnings per share rose 23% to 12.9 pence, mainly due to a significant reduction in forecasts.

Revenue for the period fell to 1 191m from 25 255m, while the value of the company’s portfolio rose to ,8 9.84bn from 13 9.13bn on September 30.

The company stressed that the valuation of its retail-parks increased by 7.1% to 1.73 billion pounds.

The BoD announced a 10.32 pence dividend, up from 8.4 pence a year ago.