Well, good morning, everybody. It's lovely to see so many of you here, and we've also got a lot of people joining online. Welcome to Shaftesbury Capital's First Interim Results Presentation. The agenda for today is pretty straightforward. I'll give a brief introduction, Situl will then go through the financial review, and I'll also then talk through the portfolio. Just a few introductions. I'm sure you know all of my colleagues. This is the exco. Situl, who I'm sure is familiar to all of you, Andrew Price, who's looking after the Carnaby Soho portfolio, Chris Ward, who's well known to all of you, Chris is focusing on integration and synergies, and Michelle McGrath, who's looking after the Covent Garden portfolio.
The merger of Capital & Counties and Shaftesbury PLC completed on the sixth of March. It's created the leading Central London mixed-use REIT, Shaftesbury Capital PLC. We are absolutely delighted with the pace of integration and with the performance that we've set out in the results today. I think you will recognize that we have a very experienced team that has come together and delivered these results for our shareholders. Just moving forward. There's been excellent momentum across the portfolio following the merger, positive operating metrics throughout the business, and we're very pleased with how the teams have come together. They've moved at considerable pace over the last 150 days. And it's been a very positive first half with rising cash rents, growth in ERVs, and cost savings running ahead of plan.
Footfall across the West End is high, particularly within our portfolio, and that's been buoyed by increasing international visitor numbers. There's high occupancy throughout the portfolio, and customer sales are generally tracking 15% ahead of pre-pandemic levels. You'll note that valuations are largely unchanged over the period. We are beginning to see the delivery of broader benefits of the merger, including the use of data. Data is allowing us to make better decisions around leasing opportunities, and we're seeing that throughout the portfolio now. We have a very strong pipeline of demand, and trading conditions are positive, as I said, throughout our portfolio. Together, that provides us with confidence in the rental growth prospects for our unique portfolio. Just a reminder of what we are. You know, we do have a unique portfolio. It's impossible to replicate.
We're proud to be the stewards of some of the London's most iconic destinations. We're primarily focused on the Greater Covent Garden area, Carnaby, Soho, and Chinatown, as represented on this map. It's about £4.9 billion of wholly owned real estate, just under 3 million sq ft of lettable space, 670 mainly freehold properties, and that's about 2,000 or so individual units. It's a well-balanced portfolio. It's split equally between retail, which is about 34%, hospitality, 34%, and what we refer to as the upper parts, which is split equally, roughly equally between offices and residential. It's a diverse customer mix, diverse income streams, broad range of unit sizes, also a broad range of rental tense, and we find that it appeals to, you know, a very wide range of occupiers.
You'll all be aware that the West End has long demonstrated an enduring appeal. It's at the center of one of the world's greatest cities. It's a major commercial center, has a wide variety of retail, hospitality, and leisure experiences, and it's home to an unrivaled concentration of entertainment and cultural attractions. It's a high-footfall destination. It attracts something in the order of 200 million visits per annum, has excellent connectivity, numerous transport hubs, including the recently opened Elizabeth line, which I'm told is now the busiest railway line in the UK. That's all helped in improving the accessibility to Central London, and particularly to the West End, and particularly to our portfolio. It is changing footfall patterns, and we're seeing the benefit of that in parts of the portfolio. We obviously have an adaptable, mixed-use portfolio.
I think one of the key themes is that it's, it's has very low CapEx requirements. That long history of sustained demand in the West End, which exceeds supply, does underpin in, in our view, the long-term prospects for rental growth. Obviously, the higher interest rate environment, and inflation, has impacted the broader investment in real estate markets. However, the investment yields in the West End, which comprises mainly freehold real estate and often in smaller lot sizes, those yields have remained resilient, as shown in the, the valuations today. We are observing a wide range of capital wishing to consider investment in Central London, both domestically and internationally, and we're beginning to see some of that being deployed recently. Strategy is very straightforward.
It's to deliver long-term income and value growth from this unique portfolio. We place the customer very much at the heart of the business. We aim to deliver best-in-class service and leverage off that knowledge that we have of the West End and our understanding of the consumer, as well as that extensive pool of commercial data. We do take a creative and active approach to the portfolio, investing prudently in these remarkable locations and refreshing the offer regularly through dynamic leasing across the portfolio, and delivery of high-quality public realm throughout our portfolio. We take a prudent approach to financial leverage, and we're very focused on maintaining cost and capital discipline.
Above all, I think we do believe in responsible stewardship and working in partnership with the wider community, and engaging fully with that and contributing to the success of the West End. We are committed to achieving net zero carbon by 2030. It's also an objective for us to become a leader in sustainability for heritage properties, and we will continue to reuse, repurpose, and improve our buildings, and to enhance the energy performance credentials of our 670 properties. Our people have a shared passion for the West End. I'm really proud of the energy and enthusiasm shown in respect of the last few months, and very much look forward to supporting the development of the team in the coming years.
As I mentioned, we're very keen and committed to supporting communities in the West End, and we look to build close ties and work collaboratively and have close relationships with our customers and occupiers in particular. Just turning to the results, strong performance across the portfolio. First six months of the year, ERV improved just over 3% to £235 million on an annualized basis. The equivalent yield did soften a little bit by 10 basis points to 4.2%. The net net of that is that the valuation is largely unchanged for the wholly owned portfolio of £4.9 billion. Net tangible assets increased 12 pence to 194 pence per share.
A lot of that was related to the completion of the merger, which Situl will talk to later. Very pleased that cash rents increased by GBP 10 million in the period to GBP 188 million, which incidentally, is actually ahead of pre-pandemic levels, which we find encouraging. As you'll note, there's been significant progress on synergies. The actions that have been taken to date are expected to result in cost savings of around GBP 9 million, and we expect total savings to be in the order of GBP 13.5 million. Balance sheet is robust. EPRA LTV, 31%. We have significant access or access to significant liquidity in the order of GBP 450 million.
Underlying earnings for the period for 1.9 pence per share. The board has declared an interim dividend of 1.5 pence per share. Against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, I think the resilient performance we've shown over the period demonstrates the exceptional qualities of our portfolio, delivering growth in cash rents and ERV and an unchanged portfolio valuation. I'll hand over to Situl to take you through the details of the financial report.
Thank you, Ian. Good morning, everyone. The merger accounting and reported numbers are quite involved for a number of reasons, as summarized in the slides and the press release. These relate mainly to timing, alignment of accounting policies, and the fair value assessment of Shaftesbury's assets and liabilities on completion. That being said, the financial highlights and priorities are straightforward: strong rental growth and cash conversion, cost control and capital discipline, and a resilient and flexible balance sheet. The income statement reflects the standalone performance of Capco up to merger completion on the sixth of March and the combined group from that date. The main levers for earnings are rental income, the running costs of the business, and finance costs. Strong trading conditions and letting activity have resulted in 6% growth in annualized income. Underlying net rental income for the half year was £63 million.
Admin costs, which were £17.9 million, excluding one-offs, continue to be managed carefully. We are running ahead of initial guidance on cost savings. Finance costs of £21.5 million reflect the capital structures of the two legacy businesses and, as of April, the replacement of the secured bonds with the unsecured loan facility. This also includes £5.7 million of income from cash deposits and interest rate caps. Underlying earnings totaled £27.5 million, equivalent to 1.9 pence per share, based on the weighted average number of shares. Taking into account progression in underlying earnings and cash generation, the dividend for the period will be 1.5 pence per share. Annualized income has increased from £178 million to £188 million, demonstrating strong cash conversion.
ERV grew by 3% during the first half. The teams continued to let space at a premium to prevailing ERVs, 5% on average across 220 transactions. Based on the value as ERV of £235 million at June, there's the opportunity to capture £46 million of additional income. £20.5 million of this is already contracted, the majority of which should form part of running income over the next 12 to 18 months, and a further £7.6 million is under offer. As refurbishment projects complete and space is let, that will further supplement contracted income. Actions taken to date will result in annualized efficiencies of approximately £9 million.
Today, we've increased our expectation of total savings from GBP 12 million to GBP 13.5 million, reflecting the continued move towards a more effective and efficient organizational structure and cost base. It's also encouraging to see that broader benefits from the merger are being identified, including incremental revenue opportunities. The valuation of the wholly owned portfolio at GBP 4.9 billion was unchanged like for like, with rental growth being balanced against outward movement in the equivalent yield. Our share of JV property represents an additional GBP 231 million of value. Net debt of GBP 1.6 billion resulted in an EPRA Loan-to-Value ratio of 31%. EPRA NTA of 194 pence was up 12p versus December 2022 and up slightly on the pro forma position.
The main movement relates to merger completion. A chart summarizing this is set out in the appendix. Property valuations were unchanged over the half year, with equivalent yields overall moving out by 10 basis points to 4.2%. Rental growth was over 3% during the first half, driven by all sectors and, in particular, including positive contributions from Covent Garden and Carnaby Soho. We continue to maintain access to significant liquidity through cash and undrawn facilities. The main movements in cash were transaction related, with operating inflows offset by dividend distributions, investment activity, and non-recurring costs. At 30 June, total cash was £157 million. There were undrawn bank facilities of £300 million. We maintain a strong balance sheet with access to liquidity, substantial unencumbered asset value, and significant covenant headroom.
We are well protected against movements in interest rates. The unsecured loan facility will be refinanced in due course, and we are exploring a number of secured and unsecured funding options. Over time, particularly as we continue to grow income and the financing market outlook becomes clearer, we will move towards a longer-term capital structure for Shaftesbury Capital, maintaining the principles of resilience, flexibility, and efficiency. To summarize, overall, there's been good progress on income growth and cost control. Asset management activity, together with a strong trading backdrop for our customers, has resulted in rental growth and an unchanged valuation. We will maintain a strong and flexible balance sheet with a focus on capital discipline and evolving the debt profile over time. With that, I will now hand back to Ian.
Yeah, thanks very much, Situl. You probably have noticed that ERV has gone up. I'm gonna remind you again, it's gone up 3.3% across the estate, which is really excellent. I mean, that's driven largely by, you know, the wonderful work the team's done on leasing. To give you a bit of color on that, there's around 220 new leasing transactions completed during the period. They were actually around 5% ahead of the December 2022 ERV. Again, that's encouraging. Again, a little bit more detail. Covent Garden ERV growth was actually 4.3%. That was really as a result of some excellent transactions in the retail side, which were very much driven by asset management initiatives that the team have done.
Hospitality has also been positive in Covent Garden. Carnaby Soho portfolio growth is driven really by office leasing activity. There's a number of developments that are also completing, and they're letting very well. Chinatown ERV growth, as you would expect, has really been driven by the hospitality sector, and it really is very busy in Chinatown, if any of you have been there recently. As Situl mentioned, we are seeing the benefits now of the merger in terms of incremental revenue opportunities. The team's using that enhanced level of data to really inform leasing decisions across the portfolio. And that increased scale of the portfolio and, and depth of offer that we have, really does provide opportunities for customers to move around the portfolio, introduce new concepts, and we're finding very good engagement with our customer base.
You know, for example, in the enlarged Covent Garden portfolio today, where the adjacence is probably more obvious than in some parts of the estate, there's a number of very interesting revenue opportunities that Michelle's team's looking at through emerging categories into the area, and also specific brand selection, which is informed, you know, by that scale and that level of information that we hold, which is very useful to our customers. It's been a strong leasing market. Quite a number of our units are attracting multiple offers at the moment, and we feel that will continue. Obviously, our strategy is to nurture these remarkable places and create thriving destinations, not just today, but as they evolve for the future. We, we are seeing a continued improvement in trading across the portfolio.
Aggregate sales that are recorded by us are in the order of 15% above where they were in 2019. You know, particularly strong performance from performance where premium and some of the luxury categories that are available in the portfolio, they're generally outperforming significantly. Some of the recent transactions, Arc'teryx, new flagship in Covent Garden, they've upsized. We're very pleased about that. Tissot, flagship store in Covent Garden, Carnaby Hollister, a really nice new store from them, OG Kicks have also recently opened. There's been a flurry of openings elsewhere in the portfolio. Stand out one of those is the, the new flagship that UNIQLO have opened on Long Acre, which has been very well received by the consumer.
For hospitality, we've obviously got a very diverse range of offer, a wide range of food concepts. It's across all price points, there's approximately 405 units or so, ranging from casual to premium. We've got a number of very innovative new offerings, as well as well-established operators. All of this provides a huge amount of choice to the consumer in the West End and in our portfolio, which we hope will continue. The actual availability of restaurant and leisure space is quite limited at the moment, and that's as a result of this strong trading. It's also a constrained planning and licensing environment in the West End, and this does result in a very high rate of renewals from the existing customer base.
Actually, there's only eight units at the moment that are available. That's an ERV of about £600,000, and most of that has, you know, quite strong interest for. The offering is evolving, and it will continue to evolve, and we've just opened Story Cellar in Seven Dials, and also Gaucho on James Street in Covent Garden. Obviously, Chinatown, as I mentioned, is a very sought-after location. It's right in the heart of the West End's entertainment district, and there's a number of debut restaurants that have recently signed or have opened. Yeah, we're finding the office market positive for us. There's a continued flight to quality. There is now a clear preference for fully fitted accommodation in the West End.
The Carnaby and Covent Garden development pipeline in this regard is, is well positioned to capture the demand, as well as offering that good quality space. There's very high amenity value in our locations, and that product continues to be well received. It's achieving good pricing, and most recent transactions are setting rental terms in excess of £100 per sq ft. I think, above all, the occupiers are attracted to the vibrancy of our locations. The office suites actually have very modest capital requirements, so we're well positioned in terms of environmental regulations. Over 70% of the office suites have EPC ratings of C or better. Looking at the residential market, a number of asset management refurbishment opportunities, but the letting market is really very strong at the moment.
Interest comes from a broad range of customers, sustained demand in the West End, we find that any space that does come available is re-let, you know, a matter of days. Rents are generally improving throughout the portfolio. There's been about 113 or so lettings during the course of the period. They were, I think, about 12.5% above previous ERV, so you can see a strong demand for our residential portfolio. Just looking at the investment opportunities, as I said, we have asset management opportunities across the portfolio, but mainly the future is about making good leasing decisions across the estate.
We have a very low capital requirement, but where we are bringing properties through, we are finding good demand, and that's witnessed really by the recent letting of or the recent completion of 72 Broadwick Street. That completed in June, and it's largely now under offer. I think we were really pleased, the team actually, that the building was recognized as the best mixed-use scheme in London by the Building London Planning Awards, so very pleased to note that. The priority is to maximize the potential from the investment in the existing properties, 670 buildings. The annual investment within that portfolio is expected to be approximately 1% of the gross value.
We've also, as we, we mentioned, a month or so ago, we've completed a detailed review of the portfolio, and we've identified a number of assets which we will dispose of as we, focus on those that we feel are gonna provide a higher rate of return. We've indicated around 5% of the wholly owned portfolio in the, as we move forward. We're well-positioned also to take, take advantage of opportunities as, as they arise, £450 million of liquidity. We have made some investments during the course of the year. A notable one is, a, an extension of the, Royal Opera House, lease, or the, the Opera House Arcade, and the long lease in respect of that property.
Just looking ahead, we really feel we've had a good start, an excellent start, actually, to Shaftesbury Capital. As I said, the teams have come together well. They've delivered a strong performance with both an increase in cash rents and ERV. The trading conditions across the West End portfolio are positive. Customer sales tracking 15% or so above 2019 levels. Excellent levels of leasing activity, strong leasing pipeline, so we've got confidence for the prospects for rental growth as we move forward. As I mentioned, we're already seeing a number of benefits from the combined platform, and with that strong financial position, which Situl will outline, we very much look forward with confidence on delivering further growth and returns in the years ahead.
We've been able to show quite a number of you around the portfolio recently, and we hope to host further tours in the summer and into the autumn. Please, if you'd like to join us, do let us know. We will also be holding an investor event in November, where we can talk about the portfolio in a little bit more detail. That concludes the formal presentation, so very happy to take questions. I think you all know the drill, but for those of you that are on the telephones, if you'd like to ask something, please do let the operators know, and they'll let us know. Would anybody like to start?
Hi, thanks for the presentation. It's Sam Knott from Kolytics. I just wanted to ask, on LTV, so your sort of pro forma LTV hasn't moved that much, but obviously, at, as Capco, it was a lot lower, and you've set a cap of sort of 40% as your maximum you'd be willing to go to. In this environment, would you be willing to push it up towards that 40%, or are you really focusing on disposals and other, like, capital activity to fund any more development or acquisitions that you're doing?
Well, look, I mean, we've got lots of opportunities within the existing portfolio and lots of liquidity, our focus is to continue to drive enhanced ERV rental growth across the portfolio and invest in those places to create really vibrant locations for the consumer and our customer. As far as the LTV is concerned, you know, we're, we're comfortable with that LTV. The disposals that we're planning are really as a result of a very detailed exercise to look at where we feel we're gonna get the best return, so they're not related to the debt. Did you want to add to that?
No, you've covered that.
Mike, at the front.
Morning, Mike Prew from Jefferies. Just going through your valuation, Fitzrovia, is that a disappointment, or there's a rather complicated for the non-estate agents amongst us statement on the on the on the valuation, the integration of the way that the valuers approached the Shaftesbury portfolio and Capco. Is, is the Fitzrovia sort of, you know, sort of, as you say, you haven't got critical mass there.
Yeah.
Is that something to be sold or something to grow, and is the 6.8% fall in valuation only 6 months a product of that, of that alignment of valuation techniques?
Yeah, Andrew's responsible for that part of the portfolio, but maybe I'll just start. I mean, what the values are telling us is that where you have a lot of transactional evidence that supports rental growth, then the valuations are maintained effectively, and we're seeing that through those core locations that I've mentioned of Covent Garden, Chinatown, Carnaby, Soho. You know, that's not really been the case in, in Charlotte Street for, and Fitzrovia, for, for whatever reason. There just isn't the volume of evidence.
Yeah, I think it's the case. We've done some transactions over the period, not to the same degree, not the same amount of volume. Without the critical mass, those rental transactions just haven't filtered through to the end value to such a degree as within some of the other areas.
The ERV is a small positive, though?
They are, and it's, and it's spread out. We've done, say we've done, a good new deal on Goodge Street, but it's actually we've got limited ownership on Goodge Street, so it's not filtered through, like when you do a deal on, say, Carnaby Street, where it kind of filters down the whole street.
Yeah, also, I mean, adding to that-
Yeah
... you know, as you know, Mike, the valuers are looking at the prospects for rental growth.
Yeah.
They, they can see that, you know, very clearly in Covent Garden and Carnaby and, and Chinatown. It's less apparent to them. You know, their independent valuations, I think it was GBP 6 million off or something like that.
Yeah.
You know, in the context of GBP 5 billion, you know, we'll live with it.
Okay, thanks.
Morning, I'm James Carswell from Peel Hunt. Yeah, I think I'm getting probably quite far ahead of myself, but there's a refinancing the end of next year. I think there's also an extension to push that back slightly. Just thinking about your current thoughts on that refi, and I guess also in terms of the disposal proceeds that you've outlined. I mean, I know you talked about the reinvestment, but will some of those proceeds be used to pay down that facility as well?
Well, you know, I'll let, let Situl talk about the specifics, but, you know, this, this a very attractive portfolio for lenders. You know, I think we're very confident about the prospects for financing of the portfolio as we go forward. You know, we said that as we dispose of that 5%, which is really the wholly owned portfolio, so it doesn't include the joint ventures, then, you know, we'll look to recycle that over a period of time. It might be the most prudent short-term opportunity is to actually apply it to repaying some of the debt. You know, we'll, we'll look at that when we, when we've made the transactions. Did you want to talk about the-
Yeah.
The actual debt then?
Yeah, look, on the, on the refinancing and the balance sheet, generally, I'd step back from it and say, we came into the merger from a strong position. I think the enlarged company has enhanced the credit positioning of, of the group. I think it's better than the individual components were. We also benefit from, you know, a reasonable amount of liquidity currently, which may be supplemented by portfolio recycling. Let's see what happens on that. Remember also that within the portfolio, we have a huge bank of unencumbered assets, which provides many options for funding. As well as, you know, we benefit from a diversified set of financings in different markets with different counterparties.
I think, just as you're seeing polarization in the leasing market, with the best locations attracting tenants and customers, I think you will see that increasingly in the financing market, and I would hope that we'd be towards the upper end of that. We have a number of, number of different options, we, you know, we'll, I'm sure we'll say more on that in due course. We'll also take a view on, tactically, on which of those markets and in what form and when, as in when interest rates settle. There's some more news on that today, isn't there?
Thanks.
Thanks.
Hi, Max Nimmo at Numis. Just, I guess following up from the, the disposals question, that's obviously a one-off. Once that's done, I think you talked a little bit about investing in asset, asset management enhancing projects. Is it 1% of gross, gross asset value? Is that... That's an ongoing target, and I, I guess, yeah, maybe just a little bit more on that and how you see that kind of enhancing the, the overall sort of total returns as you go forward.
Yeah, that, that's just been the drumbeat of the individual portfolios, actually, for a number of years. You know, it is, as I said, it's a portfolio where we feel we can generate considerable growth just by making smart leasing decisions. That data that we now have across the portfolio, which, you know, in some instances, tracks back for 10, 15 years, and that does provide us with a level of confidence that we can actually talk to our customers and say, "Well, look, you could operate at a higher rate of sales in this location than you think." That's really the main focus.
Obviously, whenever there's an opportunity to look at a refurbishment of an entire building, then we'll take that chance, and, yeah, we'll look at investing in that property, to generate what we hope are good returns, well above, you know, just normal asset management returns. We'll also take the opportunity to enhance the environmental credentials. It's not a Shaftesbury Capital business, Max, where we've got to put a lot of money in to generate the returns. You know, the returns are going to come from, frankly, Andrew, Michelle, and their teams being active in the market and coming up with smart, leasing decisions. We will also invest in public realm. I think that's, that's important, and we're seeing opportunities also between the spaces that we own, in making those linkages more attractive.
You know, that 1% is really the underlying drumbeat of the portfolio. We don't have to spend it, but we feel that's the right level of annualized investment to maintain what we have.
Got it. Thank you.
Question over there?
Morning. Celine Surine from Barclays. I just have one question, please. Can you reconcile the fact that customer sales are on average 15% ahead of 2019 levels for retail, and that your retail ERV is still 20% below, below 2019 levels? Thank you.
Well, you know, that's the task, isn't it? You've hit the nail on the head. You know, we are seeing very strong sales, very strong demand. It's beginning to translate into rents, but You know, I think that will continue to improve, as we've sort of intimated, as we move over the coming period. We would expect that improvement in sales to actually translate over time into improved ERVs. You know, for the valuers, you need a lot of evidence, which is why often the valuation ERVs are below the transactional ERVs. Which was the case in this period, where the transactions were at five and a bit%, and the ERVs were at 3.3%. Any questions on the phones? I can't, I can't see. Yes? Okay.
If you'd like to ask a question on the phone line, please press star one on your telephone keypad. The first question, it comes from the line of Markus Kulessa from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, everyone. quickly, your, your 3% ERV like-for-like growth, do you have a number for your actual rent growth? Is it, is it comparable? Your, your net rental like-for-like growth-
The rent, the rental's has gone up.
Does this include. Yeah, sorry.
Yeah, no, there is a number there. The rent, annualized rent's £188 million, so we've added about £10.5 million or so.
Yeah.
It's been very positive performance. You know, if you look at... There's a graph on one of the slides, I can't remember which one. It was in Situl's presentation, which looks at the bridge between passing rent and, or gross income and ERV. A lot of that is actually accounted for at the moment, both in terms of transactions that have happened, where rent frees are rolling off, et cetera, and property that's under offer. You should see that income line continue to improve.
Okay. I- maybe, it's too early to give a full year EPS guidance, but maybe to help me or us construct it, do we have a guidance on the, or I missed it maybe, on the underlying admin expenses you expect for the full year? Or if you are already at the, at the running rate, there? Second, here, also the loan facility, which is at GBP 175, I think you showed, but has further step-ups. At the same time, you have some hedging. Understood well, maybe a guidance on the cost of debt, also for the full year.
Yeah, well, there, there's a lot in that. Thank you very much. I mean, you'll forgive me in this forum. We, we tend to try and. It's not normally our practice to sort of give forward earnings guidance. I think you can see from the traction within the portfolio in the first half, that we are seeing strong income growth, matched by positive ERV growth. We've made strong gains, really, in respect of the progress on the cost base of the organization, but that is slightly, you know, offset by rising cost of a debt, which is impacting everybody. All of those factors will go into the mix for the year-end, but the outlook for the second half, we feel is, is positive. The dividend for the first half is, is 1.5 pence against underlying of 1.9.
Hopefully, we'll see progression in the second half.
Okay, thank you. The dividend payout will be my, my last question, and thank you very much. The dividend payout at GBP 1.5 is overpaying your cash generation, as you still have some exceptionals. Is this driven by your shareholders, or-
No.
How can I read it, please?
I mean, Situl can comment on it. I mean, the, the board's very comfortable with setting that level at this stage, as the business is, is cash generative. There's quite a lot of underlying technical issues around the, the P&L, which is why we focus on the underlying earnings. As a percentage of underlying earnings, we feel that's probably the right level.
Yeah, Marcus, I.
Okay.
-add to that, just to remind you that, remember, our policy is to, progress the dividend payout in line with growth in, underlying earnings and cash generation. We, we spoke a lot during the presentation about cash conversion of rent, and Ian mentioned that growth in annualized income from £178 million to £188 million, and also the visibility of growing that from £188 million towards the ERV. And so the 1.5 pence per share, the, the, comparator for that, the way we would regard it, is the 1.9 pence per share of underlying earnings, which tries to take out the noise of the transaction and other one-off items.
Yeah. Are we, are we at the end of these, transaction items, or it's around GBP 40 million in H1? Was it the last one, or it's still some more to come?
What you-
Obviously, it's not underlying, as it's still cash, will still impact-
Yeah
... our models.
Yeah. What you will see coming through over the coming months will be, integration costs. You know, you'll see we've upped our, expectation of savings, in terms of synergies, and alongside that, there will be some costs that are incurred with that. I would hope that 2023 captures, financial year 2023, captures all of those effects, from 2024, you'll have a pretty clean set of numbers.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Okay, thanks very much for the questions. Any, any more on the, on the lines? Okay, well.
There are no further questions on the phone lines.
Okay, thanks for that. Anything further from the room? Well, look, really appreciate... I know a lot of you are off to another presentation, which isn't in person, but we hope you'll enjoy it. It's nice to see so many of you here. If you've got any questions, you know, do, do call any of us as the day goes on, and we'd love to see you down on the in the portfolio. Hopefully, we'll see a lot of you in November for the investor event. Thank you very much for coming.