Owner of Covent Garden, Liberty International, has reported half-year losses.

Liberty International PLC, the property company that owns Covent Garden in London, has announced a loss of £458 million in the first half of 2008, compared with a £552m profit a year ago.

The firm released its interim report for the half year ended 30 June 2008 on Thursday (7 August), revealing a 7.4% fall in the value of its properties – £639m off its £8.6 billion portfolio.

The UK FTSE 100 listed property company warned against the weakening retail sector, compounded by the downturn in the property market.

Patrick Burgess, Chairman of Liberty International, said: “The property cycle has to run its course with excesses of the boom years to be purged from the system. Property values are unlikely to recover until stability returns to the banking sector and therefore we consider the process of falling property values is not yet complete.”

The shopping centre landlord said more than 13% had been wiped off its net asset value per share, taking it from 1264p to 1095p; the earnings per share saw a loss of 117.9p.

Liberty said 62 of its UK shopping centre tenants had fallen into administration – accounting for £10m, or 3% of its rental income. It outperformed IPD’s retail index, however, which fell by about 8.9% in the period. There was also greater resilience in its US properties, down 0.8%.

Burgess continued: “Liberty International has continued to demonstrate its resilience based upon our quality assets, sound financial structure and active asset management approach, notwithstanding that the first half of 2008 has been a difficult period for the UK property sector. We are confident that with our firm foundation we can meet the challenges and plan for the opportunities which current market conditions will provide.”

“Underlying profits for the period, excluding valuation items, were held back by a prudential approach to bad debts and lease incentive write-offs and by interest and administration expenses linked to development activities and recent investments. As we consider these factors will not hinder our long term progress, the directors have declared an unchanged interim dividend of 16.5p per share.”

For more information, visit: www.liberty-international.co.uk