During the period, our cash receipts exceeded cash expenditure by £175.1m and, as a result, net debt decreased to £5,209.4m (31 March 2008: £5,384.5m). During the six months we invested £266.1m in our properties including £32.4m on investment property acquisitions and £212.2m on development. The development expenditure, which includes land acquisitions but excludes our share of joint ventures and capitalised interest, was spent principally on One New Change, EC4, 50 Queen Anne’s Gate, SW1, in London and shopping centre developments in Livingston, and Leeds.
Cash receipts during the six months, including net cash receipts from our joint ventures and associates, totalled £510.6m. This included £212.5m from investment property disposals (including £9.7m of Trillium investment properties). A further £30.5m was received from the sale of Trillium’s freehold operating properties. We also received a net £103.0m from the disposal of PPP assets to the Trillium Investment Partners fund.
We received a net £163.2m from our joint ventures and associates, of which £185.3m was achieved by the sale of the Empress State Building, SW6, to a 50:50 joint venture with Liberty International PLC, and its simultaneous refinancing. Our share of expenditure within the joint venture category includes £90.6m on developments, principally at Bristol and Cardiff, and £17.6m on acquisitions into the Harvest joint venture with Sainsbury’s.
