Helical Stock

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Helical's results presentation for the full year ending 31st of March 2026. Speaking today, I'm joined by our CFO, James Moss; and Rob Sims, our CIO. The agenda here sets out what we will cover during the presentation, and we'll take questions at the end.

I'm pleased to report that we have had another extremely productive year operationally as we deliver on the strategy we set out 2 years ago. At the beginning of our financial period, we exchanged contracts on the forward sale of 100 New Bridge Street to State Street Corporation, which was one of the standout transactions of 2025.

Practical completion was reached a week ago and the sale completed this week. State Street are delighted with their new building, and we are equally proud of not only the final product, but the excellent relationship that has been forged.

At Southwark, where we pivoted from a relatively equity-heavy office-led scheme to an equity-light PBSA led scheme, we exchanged contracts on the forward sale of the affordable housing block to Southwark Borough Council and the forward funding of the adjoining PBSA block with our partners' Places for London. Rob will run through the details of both transactions, but I would stress that we are taking delivery risk and not market or operational risk through our forward funding structures.

Ahead of the site acquisition at Paddington, we secured a GBP 220 million development facility from PIMCO, fixing the swap rate at a favorable time and with margin step downs linked to development and letting milestones. Following the purchase of the site, we signed a construction contract with Mace, and work is now well underway.

At the Bower, the resurgence of the tech occupier market, driven by AI, which we highlighted at the half year has continued with significant momentum. We have achieved 30,000 square feet of new lettings, a further 20,000 square foot is under offer and regears of 50,000 square foot currently in legals.

We've been working with Places for London on new office opportunities. And last month, we were delighted to receive unanimous approval to our planning application for a new 55,000 square foot scheme on Charterhouse Street, opposite the new London Museum. Terms have been agreed for its acquisition, and we look forward to concluding the transaction shortly.

During the year, we had 700,000 square foot of office space under construction, and we look forward to completing Brettenham House in August and 10 King William Street in December of this year. Having now completed 100 New Bridge Street, we will be looking to start the main construction works at Southwark once we have secured gateway to approval later this year.

Turning to the results. The progress made has increased our EPRA earnings and moved our NTA forward. As promised and as part of our consistent approach to capital allocation, I'm pleased to announce that we are proposing a significant return of equity from the surplus realized development profit on the sale of 100 New Bridge Street, taking the total proposed return for the year to 16.4p per share, a significant increase on the prior year and our largest return since 2004. James will provide further detail on this and the wider financial results shortly.

In terms of the office occupational market in Central London, the flight to quality continues with occupiers taking more space rather than less. Expansions, outpacing contractions have meant a net absorption of 3.8 million square feet, the highest level in 6 years. Active demand is up 57% on the long-term average and transactions under offer are up by 60%. Letting activity is more focused on the larger occupiers, whilst traditional sector SMEs adopt a more cautious and cost-conscious approach.

Artificial intelligence is driving a new wave of demand. In the first quarter of 2026, AI companies accounted for approximately 20% of take-up. And Cushman & Wakefield London Moves research study predicted that over the next 3 years, AI demand will continue to account for up to 20% of annual Central London take-up. This is from a standing start of pretty much 0.

The locational focus of these businesses tends to be in the arc running from Kings Cross through to Old Street, Shoreditch, and Liverpool Street. And we're certainly benefiting from this wave of activity at the Bower and momentum seems to be building with the speed of leasing transactions increasing too.

The more established U.S. companies tend to grow from West Coast to East and then to London, where they focus on campuses that can meet their growing needs and provide the all-important access to talent. Newer homegrown start-ups meanwhile, transition from service offices to fitted and managed solutions and then scale to larger floor plates with bespoke fit-outs, and we continue to adapt our offerings to meet these needs.

Artificial intelligence is likely to further exacerbate the bifurcation in the office market with what Deloitte recently termed as the digital divide between highly connected, secured and intelligent buildings offering resilience and commanding a significant premium and those that don't.

The supply of vacant office space in Central London remains reasonably elevated, the supply being concentrated in less popular submarkets, smaller floor plates, poorly connected areas or in compromised buildings. The core submarkets, meanwhile, have a severe shortage of quality buildings and Cushman's are forecasting a 15 million undersupply by 2030.

With few distressed opportunities to gain the right entry pricing, viability continues to remain challenging with elevated construction and finance costs. New build schemes require extensive justification in an environment of retrofit first planning policies and the contractor market looks to long-term repeat business relationships with developers, allowing competitive pricing throughout the supply chain.

Given the problems in navigating the delivery of complex development projects, it is not surprising that construction starts have declined 35% on an annual basis with a pronounced supply squeeze expected to 2030 and in my view, likely well beyond that.

If you are developing best-in-class Central London office projects in undersupplied markets, this is the most favorable occupational market from a supply and demand perspective I've ever experienced. With regard to capital markets, recent geographical uncertainty has undoubtedly paused what had been a very encouraging sentiment at the beginning of the year. There has, however, been over GBP 1 billion of office investment transactions closed since the start of the Middle East conflict with minimal and often no price adjustment.

With GBP 2.7 billion of deals currently under offer and a number of notable GBP 100 million deals being tested in the market, it will be interesting to see the conversion rate and the ultimate pricing of those transactions. Given the repricing of the sector and the favorable occupational dynamics, the fundamentals of the London office market remain very attractive for the best quality stock.

I will now hand over to James to cover the financial details in more detail.

Thank you, Matthew, and good morning. Matthew has highlighted the significant progress and milestones achieved throughout the year. A number of these events have an immediate impact to the group's returns, such as the forward sale of 100 New Bridge Street. The impact of other items such as the acquisition and funding of Paddington or getting a planning consent for 63 Charterhouse Street will be realized later, but are key steps along the development pathway.

As a result of the progress made, our EPRA earnings have doubled and the NTA has grown. But it will be through letting up the development pipeline that we will drive future significant financial returns, and we are very well placed to be able to achieve this over the next few years.

As you would expect, the acquisition of Delta Paddington and the CapEx spent across the portfolio increased the LTV, and that was up to 36% at the year-end. But following the sale of 100 New Bridge Street and after taking into account the capital return, this falls to below 21%. Our successful sale of GBP 245 million of investment property last year allowed us to rebalance the capital of the business, enabling us to take full advantage of the exciting development pipeline. This has resulted in a significant increase in our development profits to GBP 4.9 million, but a reduction in net rental income to GBP 15.4 million.

As part of our focus on maximizing returns, we undertook to reduce our cost base, and this year reflects the full savings from this exercise with our admin expense falling by over GBP 2 million to GBP 8.8 million.

Net finance costs have fallen as we have shifted the portfolio from investment assets where these costs are capitalized into developments -- sorry, where they are expensed into developments where these costs are capitalized. The net impact is an increased profit of GBP 5.5 million. We achieved a net valuation gain of GBP 2.7 million, partially offset by the fall in fair value of our interest rate swaps of GBP 2.3 million, resulting in an IFRS profit after tax of GBP 5.7 million.

Our EPRA NTA of 348p at the beginning of the year was increased by the earnings per share of 4.5p, and the revaluation gains from our development activity of 2.6p. The payment of the prior year final dividend of 3.5p and the interim dividend of 1.5p partially offset these gains, resulting in an EPRA NTA of 351p.

Our dividend policy is to pay as a minimum, the PID required by our REIT status. This will be supplemented by a share of the realized development profits to the surplus the requirements of the business after taking into account our capital allocation priorities that Matthew will cover later. We are proposing a final PID for the year of 1p, which takes the total to 2.5p, up from 1.5p last year.

As we promised last year, with the completion of the sale of 100 New Bridge Street this week, we proposed to return GBP 17 million or 13.9p per share. In determining this quantum, the Board was mindful of a number of key priorities. Firstly, managing our gearing. The majority of the GBP 95 million proceeds will be used to reduce leverage, paying down the RCF.

Second, maintaining our balance sheet strength. We seek to retain a minimum level of net assets to undertake complex development opportunities, particularly with Places for London and to source accretive project level finance from debt and equity partners. Based on our current development pipeline, we consider this minimum to be GBP 400 million, but this will be reassessed continuously as we derisk the existing portfolio and progress new schemes.

Finally, given the favorable market dynamics Matthew highlighted earlier, we are confident of adding new opportunities to the pipeline. So we will seek to retain sufficient funds to be able to take advantage of these quickly. We consider a return of GBP 17 million strikes the right balance across these priorities. Having taken into account feedback from our stakeholders and our share price discount to NTA, we are proposing to split this between a GBP 12 million capital return using the well-trodden path of the B-share scheme and GBP 5 million of share buybacks. The combination of the PID, the capital return and share buybacks take the total return for the year to 16.4p.

We have exercised the first option under -- of our GBP 210 million RCF with the second option to be exercised over this summer. We have also secured finance for the development of Delta Paddington. Following a highly competitive process, PIMCO was selected with them having previously funded the JJ Mack Building and 100 New Bridge Street, both now repaid.

The terms agreed are accretive and reflect an 85 basis point reduction on the margin achieved at 10 King William Street. This improvement was a result of growing lender confidence in high-quality, well-located offices that are being developed by sponsors with a strong track record.

The pari passu nature of the structure allows us to make our equity work harder and drive the scheme's returns. The loan benefits from significant margin step-downs to reward letting and development progress and the 4.5-year term has a 1-year extension option.

Our initial intention was to sign the loan alongside the main contract at the end of March this year. But working with Places for London and PIMCO, we were able to bring this forward to February to align with the deferred site purchase. This turns out to be more valuable than just minimizing our equity as we fixed at 3.6%. Just a few weeks before the war started and rates moved out by over 70 basis points.

This slide shows the current and expected overall debt position. With interest rates remaining stubbornly high, we benefit from all our borrowings being fully hedged and an extended maturity of 4 years. The average cost of our RCF remains low at 3%, and we had GBP 288 million of cash and undrawn facilities to fund our ongoing and future development activity. We remain committed to maintaining our balance sheet strength. And since 2021, we have sold nearly GBP 800 million of assets. These sales have allowed us to contain our LTV throughout the period. With a current LTV of 21%, we are well positioned to build the pipeline, take advantage of new opportunities or manage a protracted war scenario.

Helical is a capital growth stock, and we seek total accounting returns in excess of 10%. As highlighted earlier, our focus on development means that returns are linked to achieving milestones events, and this results in a lumpy profit recognition. The returns from our standing investment portfolio continue to cover the group's admin and finance costs and provide payment with the PID.

With the lettings of the Bower, these are set to increase going forward. The investment turns are supplemented by profits from our development activities, which have seen a significant increase during the year. And as we let Brettenham House and Southwark, these will continue to grow.

Finally, we expect to capture material gains as we develop and let our joint venture office pipeline. In total, we believe there's GBP 84 million of value to come, excluding yield movements, and this could increase to GBP 116 million if we achieve rents 5% above business plan and almost GBP 140 million if we hit 10%.

Rob will now take you through our progress at each asset and their expected contribution to our future returns.

Today, I'll take you through the key highlights from our portfolio. We'll first look at the development projects, where we have made progress across our extensive pipeline, derisking the near GBP 1 billion worth of schemes we currently have under construction, recycling capital and identifying profitable new opportunities.

I will start with 100 New Bridge Street, where we reached practical completion on our best-in-class office redevelopment earlier this month. This complex, comprehensive refurbishment was delivered over an accelerated 24-month program with over 1 million man-hours worked and was completed within the budget agreed upon formation of the joint venture with Orion.

Utilizing our experience, we were able to unlock 30,000 square foot of additional net internal area, which has ultimately equated to over GBP 50 million in value. On Wednesday, we handed the building over to State Street. We'll be opening their new headquarters in 2027.

Overall, the project is a strong affirmation of Helical's strategy to deliver high-quality HQ buildings capable of occupation by the largest and most forward-thinking businesses. The handover also marks completion of the forward sale. The transaction achieved a headline price of GBP 333 million, equivalent to GBP 2,000 per square foot on a topped-up basis, placing it as one of the largest single lot size transactions in London in recent years.

We will now conclude the arrangements under the JV waterfall, enabling the final profit shown on this slide to be realized.

Turning to Brettenham House. Redevelopment works of this 1930s building are now at an advanced stage with completion anticipated in August. During the period, we achieved sectional completion on 2 floors and removed the external scaffolding to the outstanding river views from the newly created terraces can be fully appreciated.

The fact the building is almost 100 years old has not stopped us from targeting the highest sustainability, wellness and performance standards, showing that with skill, heritage assets can be repositioned into spaces meeting modern occupiers exacting requirements.

We've received encouraging interest in the building during the period with negotiations progressing with one party for a number of floors at the top of the building. Active marketing of the remaining space will commence over the summer.

From a capital efficiency perspective, Brettenham House is delivering under an equity-light structure, which is projected to generate a 2x return on Helical's GBP 12.5 million investment alongside the GBP 2.5 million development management fee already received.

With the main contract final account agreed in the period, the ultimate return will now be dependent upon the rental performance of the property, and we're increasingly encouraged by its prospects. Positively, we are seeing this bespoke deal structure provide a framework for other potential JV discussions where landowners are seeking aligned partners who can bring expertise to assist the complex projects. Matthew will touch upon these later.

Next, 10 King William Street. A 142,000 square foot new build office development in the heart of the city. Progress has continued at pace since construction topped out in January. Facade works are complete and the internal fit-out is progressing well. We've even chosen our feature tree, [ Kristen ] Hannah, will have pride of place in our reception.

The project remains on program for practical completion in December. And from a cost perspective, the main contract final account is now agreed with all CapEx to come funded under the HSBC facility. The delivery of 10 King William Street feels particularly well timed as there continues to be an extreme scarcity of high-quality new office space within the City of London.

In fact, CBRE recently noted that there are currently only 6 new floors of 20,000 square foot or more available in the city core, to which we will be adding a further 5 shortly. Importantly, on the ground, we are seeing increasingly strong letting interest. In recent weeks, there have been almost daily viewings and terms are currently issued to a number of parties accounting for all floors.

Occupiers continue to take time to ensure that they do make the correct decisions for their businesses, but we remain confident 6 months prior to PC and with rents continuing to rise that we will be able to convert this interest in the coming months, enabling outperformance of our base return expectations as shown on this slide.

At Southwark, the joint venture exchanged contracts on a forward funding agreement for the PBSA element of the scheme with Places for London's own newly established operational platform in February. The transaction valued the 429-unit PBSA building at over GBP 200 million on completion, achieving a market-leading per key rate.

Simultaneously, we forward to give affordable housing element, which will deliver 44 homes to Southwark Borough Council. This is a strong example of our equity-light strategy. We've revised the original office consent to deliver an optimized scheme that represents the highest value use for this exceptionally well-located site. The forward funding structure means the joint venture is not required to commit any further equity, and we are targeting in excess of a 3x return on our investment.

Importantly, we're not seeking to operate student accommodation, either here or at future potential sites such as White City. As a result of the transaction, the joint venture is only responsible for the delivery of the scheme with the realization of the forecast profit shown on this slide dependent upon cost control and program maintenance.

Helical also stands to receive an additional promote payment of up to GBP 8 million over and above the profit stated here, which will be dependent upon the creation of additional capital value for the forward fund.

The first tranche of the profit, Helical share being GBP 10.2 million, will be paid upon receipt of Gateway 2 approval later this year. At the same time, we'll be fully reimbursed for all costs incurred to date. The balance of the profit will be determined and paid upon practical completion. With listed building consent now secured and demolition underway, we have substantially derisked the development. We now await Gateway 2 approval, which will enable main works to commence in the second half of 2026. Completion of both buildings is targeted ahead of the start of the 2029, 2030 academic year.

Now to the newly branded Delta Paddington, our flagship office development positioned directly above the eastern, canalside entrance to Paddington Station. It will deliver over 240,000 square foot of scarce new office accommodation across 15 floors, offering future occupiers, exceptional connectivity and a vibrant canalside setting, accessed directly from reception.

Sustainability is central to the scheme, and we have sought to push ourselves to achieve even higher standards than before. The building has already been recognized as the U.K.'s second highest BREEAM Outstanding design-score of 97.4%, and we are confident of achieving a rare NABERS 5.5 star rating.

During the period, our joint venture formally completed the acquisition of the site for GBP 55 million. At the same time, we signed a development financing package, ensuring the scheme is fully funded. This is a significant milestone as occupiers are placing an increasing importance on delivery certainty as well as the track record of the developer when making early commitments.

In March, we signed the main construction contract with Mace, securing a fixed price contract, which reduces our exposure to any prolonged inflationary cost pressures as much as possible. They'll take possession of the site later this year following completion of the initial enabling works package being undertaken by Keltbray.

As this video highlights, this is a logistically challenged site, but works are well underway to form the core and the basement and practical completion is targeted in Q3 2028, a point of particularly low forecast supply across London. A key barrier to new development remained a limited and highly selective top-tier contractor market.

Helical prides itself on having strong relationships throughout the supply chain, and our track record of committing to schemes provides counterparties with confidence we will execute, thereby enabling us to work with the very best teams, as you will hear, where some of the core team members have worked on 4 consecutive projects for us.

We're pleased to be able to further expand the pipeline with 63 Charterhouse, the next development we plan to bring forward within the Places for London joint venture. Utilizing the JV's unique ability to unlock operational land, we identified a prominent gap site on Charterhouse Street, opposite the new London Museum.

Just over a year ago, we began developing proposals for a new office building designed by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, who delivered our hugely successful JJ Mack building just down the road.

Having engaged proactively with Islington Council over a number of pre-app meetings, we're pleased to receive unanimous planning consent in April. The building will provide 55,000 square feet of high-quality office accommodation over ground plus 5 stories, all within 100 meters of Farringdon Elizabeth Line Station.

Our next step is to conclude the site acquisition into the joint venture. The agreed purchase price is below GBP 2 million. Therefore, the JV is taking time to fully develop the scheme's design.

Now I'll turn to the investment portfolio, where we've seen improving occupational demand, as noted at our half year presentation, translating into tangible lettings, strengthening the overall income profile.

At the Loom, whilst vacancy remained elevated, we are seeing encouraging signs that the asset's relative value compared to more central submarkets is attracting tenants with 1 new letting completed and 2 further units going under offer since the year-end. We also renewed 13,000 square foot of existing leases at a premium to ERV, including that of the largest tenant.

Given the nature of the Loom, there is the opportunity for tenants to move internally to satisfy their own change in business requirements. Encouragingly, this flexibility enabled 4 tenants to move, increasing rents by 11% compared to the units ERVs.

The Bower continues to experience a notable uptick in demand, in particular, from AI and innovation-led businesses, building on the established cluster around the silicon roundabout, and this has translated into strong letting progress during the year.

This slide illustrates how the 30,000 square foot of completing lettings has materially improved occupancy. And once the 20,000 square foot currently under offer completes, the vacancy across the Bower reduced to just 3.4%. This has added GBP 4 million to our contracted rent.

Looking at the specifics. In the tower, we exchanged contracts to let the 5th and 6th floors to incident.io and the lease will complete in early June. In addition, we've let the 3rd floor to a technology platform, meaning all of the historic WeWork space has now been successfully repositioned. Further up the building, the 12th floor is under offer for an 11-year term and the 15th floor is seeing interest from both new and existing occupiers.

The benefits of the shorter-term managed solution have also been felt with the largest unit being let after the year-end, generating a further GBP 0.5 million of contracted income. Encouragingly, we are progressing a number of regear discussions. In fact 3 floors in the tower are due to complete today. Regears on another 2 floors in the warehouse are close to agreement and the same occupier will also be taking the vacant seventh floor as part of the deal to accommodate internal headcount growth.

Tenant retention is vital, and it's positive a number of businesses are seeking to extend their stay. When one takes into account the scheme's extensive public realm and vibrant cultural offering with all of the retail units fully let, it is clear that the Bower continues to provide a compelling proposition to tenants that is hard to beat elsewhere in the market.

Looking ahead, we're confident that our strategy at the Bower to provide a diverse range of offerings ranging from Cat-A to fully fitted spaces will continue to respond to tenants requirements, thereby ensuring value is preserved and optionality retained for future capital recycling.

In summary, we've made considerable progress across the portfolio in the period, which provides the foundations for us now to realize significant value in the foreseeable future.

I'll hand back to Matthew.

Thank you, Rob. I wanted to touch on how we look at capital allocation. Clearly, our priority is maintaining sufficient balance sheet strength to ensure we can meet the future needs of the business. We also need to have a balance sheet that will permit us to obtain development financing on attractive terms from our relationship lenders.

We have a valuable joint venture relationship with Places for London, which provides access to exciting new opportunities. As part of that agreement, there are net asset requirements. And as we're delivering complex projects above alongside transport assets. The requirements reflect the size and number of projects we have ongoing at any one time, and we will always want to make sure we have sufficient headroom to deliver the schemes at the optimum time from a market perspective.

Our loan-to-value is also a very important consideration when determining capital allocation, and we will seek to deleverage as appropriate. The returns possible through our joint venture projects and the fees and promotes from our equity-like transactions will be carefully analyzed together with the number of opportunities we are seeing and are able to transact upon.

As James has stated, we will continue to pay out the PID, but we will look at returns to shareholders, either by way of share buybacks, special dividends or capital returns from surplus realized development profits, while remaining cognizant of the requirement and needs of the business, our gearing levels and the returns we can make from new opportunities.

Given the commentary about new opportunities, I thought it useful as a reminder, to talk about the nature of the transactions that we continue to focus on. Having developed over 10 million square feet over the last 30 years with 47 different joint venture partners, every deal is bespoke. But I'll try to categorize here typical transactions and structures.

So we will look to work in joint venture with capital partners where we acquire opportunities either on or off market as we have done recently with Ashby Capital at the JJ Mack Building and Orion Capital Managers at 100 New Bridge Street.

We will also continue to bring forward new office projects in our JV with Places for London as we are at 10 King William Street and at Delta Paddington and potentially with other building owners. In both instances, we would wish to target leverage returns of 15% plus.

We will seek to deploy equity-light structures where we work with owners of office buildings and bring our development expertise. Rather than purely fee-based development management, we put equity into the project so that we have a proper alignment of interest with our partners for which we are rewarded through a promote structure. We have similarly taken office projects to alternative use, such as at Southwark, and we would expect to contribute GBP 5 million or so to cover planning and design fees, but would importantly take delivery risk only and not market or operational risk. We will remain very much office focused in our equity convictions, but where opportunities present themselves to make equity multiples of 2x plus, we will certainly progress alternative uses.

Many of you may recognize this slide from last year, and that is because our strategy hasn't changed. In my first year as CEO, we recycled significant capital, executing the sales we needed to in order to deliver our current significant office development program into an undersupplied market. We're converting the letting interest at the Bower, which is benefiting hugely from the surge in tech and AI demand. And having secured a great result at 100 New Bridge Street, we look forward to achieving lettings at 10 King Williams Street, Brettenham House and Delta Paddington.

Our flexibility in pivoting to best value use is serving us well in our joint venture with Places for London as we build upon the success of Southwark. Meanwhile, we will continue in that JV to bring forward exciting office projects like 63 Charterhouse Street. We're having good conversations on other potential projects for our pipeline as our strategy and focus becomes better understood, building upon a 30-year track record of profitable developments in London for our partners. We can deliver substantial profits over the coming years, and we remain absolutely focused on capital allocation and delivering for our shareholders.

Thank you for listening, and we will now take questions. Tom, straight up there.

It's Tom Musson from Berenberg. Just on the use of proceeds from 100 New Bridge Street, there was maybe slightly more of it allocated to deleveraging than we might have thought a few months ago, but I think for good reason. Is this with a view to committing to running the business with structurally lower leverage going forward than you have in the past given the higher rate environment? And how should we expect that, that 21% pro forma LTV evolves over the next 12 months?

Yes. So I think that's absolutely right. There's -- the war has, I think, rightly made us consider where we should put the money and paying down the RCF is, we believe, is the right choice now. In terms of kind of ultimate guidance for LTV, we want to contain it. We still want to contain it with 35%. We're keen to -- we're willing to have debt in the joint ventures on the asset level, but we want to keep the debt at the parent -- the wider group low. And where it's looking to go, I think we're looking to get up to -- we should be around 30% in a year's time, but before the valuation gains.

We will continue to recycle capital as we go through the development process in order to keep -- make sure it's not raised at a group level.

And we're expecting GBP 18 million in when we get Gateway 2 for Southwark. And we see -- a lot of the DNP has actually bring cash into the business as we go through.

Ashnaa Vyas from Deutsche Bank. You mentioned on your capital allocation slide, the potential for capital returns. I just wanted to ask how we should think about those capital returns going forward? Should we expect those as and when you sell buildings? And is there anything in your current pipeline whilst it might not work for all structures? Is there anything you can envision running a similar process on?

I think the profits will be lumpy, and they will be -- they will come through as buildings let up and as we also recycle assets in the portfolio. So it's difficult to have a sort of give explicit guidance on every year, but it will come through. You will be able to identify it, one would imagine as you see the letting progress.

In terms of the sort of new projects, we've got a number of opportunities that we're looking at, at the moment. And the reason why we're particularly focused on the equity-light is not only because of the returns that we get to shareholders in terms of the equity multiples, it's also because there's not a huge amount of distress in the market. So it's difficult to find those opportunities. So actually partnering up with people who own the assets is a better way into those transactions. And if we can align our interest properly, give them the expertise that they don't have, we find that's, for us, a fairly unique way of playing in the development cycle without actually owning the assets.

John Werba, also from Deutsche Bank. Could I ask on the forward sales? You mentioned you're only carrying delivery risk here. It would be useful to understand how you manage that in terms of do you get a fixed cost -- fixed price rather from the contractor and also other penalties for late delivery, how would they be impacted?

And then also probably a follow-up question on the leverage. Is it also a part of the thinking there that if you're doing more forward funds and you mentioned Places for London having a net asset requirement that you want to have a little less leverage in order to manage that?

In terms of the procurement risk on Southwark, predominantly, there we will be obtaining a fixed price contract. We're in advanced discussions with the contractor there, and we'll look to sort of formalize that position over the summer months. We'll have standard delay penalties placed in that contract. And we've also backed out in the forward funding agreement quite a favorable regime for us with the forward funding. So we're not overly exposed to sensitivities in the profit there for any sort of delay on the site.

Yes. So yes, you're right. So maintaining the hurdle for places is based on a net asset test rather than an absolute leverage test. And ultimately, we've got comfortable headroom at GBP 400 million over the tests. Now the tests themselves vary with as we deliver projects. So as we derisk them, the hurdles fall. But as we take on new opportunities such as 63 and White City, they go up again. So it is very much part of our thinking is to ensure that we have comfortable headroom in the net assets over those hurdles.

So the headroom is very comfortable.

And perhaps just to follow up there. How visible is the pipeline on the PFL side for future opportunities?

We do get offered quite a few situations, some of which do make sense and some of which don't make sense from our perspective. A number of them are sort of could potentially be quite long term and quite and involve sort of moving elements of the transport network. So there are some things that we would prefer to get on with rather than get sucked into sort of a 10-year, 15-year sort of master planning project.

But we do see a reasonable number of projects. Some of them are more living based. I'd say the better office projects we've probably secured. There may be 1 or 2 others coming through, certainly enough to keep us busy. And at the moment, we tend to be able to cope easily with about -- up to about 1 million square feet of construction at any one time. So ones drop off and then new ones add on, and that feels about the right level. We certainly wouldn't want to scale up the team, particularly to take on sort of much longer-term projects because I don't feel that's the right for our business.

It's Matt Saperia from Peel Hunt. Two questions. First one on Southwark. You talked about an GBP 8 million promote. Can you just talk us through what has to happen for you to secure that promote?

And the second question is on 10 King William Street. I think previously, you talked about your expectation that it will end up being multi-let. Obviously, you've talked about some encouraging letting interest. Is that on a floor-by-floor basis? Or have you got people interested in the whole? And could you get to a situation where there could be some sort of competition for the space?

So on Southwark, the forward funding agreement has a bespoke arrangement. It's unique to our Places for London joint venture, whereby the value that's created in the scheme in the second year -- second academic year will be assessed. And the extent there's been outperformance against the forward fund as base underwrite, then we're able to benefit from 25% of the capital appreciation.

So we don't take any operational risk on the lease-up, but we are able to benefit. There's no downside, but we are able to just benefit from that rental performance that they will ultimately receive. And that's just to ensure true alignment as we hand over the building for them so they get the best operational performance in the long run.

Turning to the letting interest at 10 King William Street, I mean, by way of example, we responded to 2 RFPs this week. And we had a new inquiry that is pretty immediate for 100,000 square foot requirement for an immediate overflow from the U.S. lawyers. The RFPs, the majority of them tend to be for a minimum of 2 floors, sometimes up to 4 floors. And then we've got terms out to 2 parties on the basis of the whole building. So a good level of interest, much more than the space that we've got to let. So that's encouraging. And it does feel at the moment, it will ultimately be a game of musical chairs.

Any questions in the room? No other questions? So thank you very much for coming. Very good to see you all.

Okay. Good morning, and welcome, everyone, to Helical's results presentation for the half year ending the 30th of September 2025. I'm joined today by our CFO, James Moss; and our CIO, Rob Sims.

The agenda here sets out what we will cover during the presentation, and we will take any questions at the end. At our half year results a year ago, my first as CEO, I set out what I saw as the Helical opportunity, and that slide is shown here. Through significant capital recycling, we had materially reduced our LTV to provide the equity to fund our development pipeline. We felt that an inflection point had been reached and now was the time to build into a supply-constrained market where we saw rents rising strongly.

At our results presentation in May this year, we reconfirmed our strategic focus of delivering large-scale, best-in-class Central London office projects, pivoting to alternative use when appropriate in joint venture and via Equity Light structures. The aim being to provide enhanced and relative to our size, meaningful returns as we deliver our development pipeline and unlock the profits via lettings and sales. We remain committed to that strategy, and we are in execution mode. During the period, we've made substantial progress across our construction projects in build and progress with planning consents and financing for those about to start.

Rob will provide further detail on the individual schemes, but we're increasingly confident that the office schemes we are delivering at Brettenham House, 10 King William Street and at Paddington will deliver significant profits. Alongside the proposed forward sale of our PBSA scheme at Southwark, we aim to deliver GBP 85 million of profit in our base case scenario, rising to GBP 140 million if we achieve 10% rental growth on those office projects. We're also delighted to announce that through our strategic joint venture with Places for London, we now have new schemes to add to our development pipeline. We have a new office project in Paddington, where a planning application has just been submitted and a significant PBSA scheme in White City, together with 2 further sites undergoing feasibility for either PBSA or living uses, and I'll cover these in more detail later.

Turning to the results. As you'll be aware, the vast majority of the profit from the market-defining sale of 100 New Bridge Street to State Street, a year ahead of practical completion was taken at the full year just gone. Our half year results announced today show an uplift in EPRA NTA per share to 349p and a profit after tax of GBP 1.8 million. James will provide further detail on the financial results shortly.

What I would like to do now is talk about the market themes we are seeing on the ground and how we expect that to impact our development projects and our investment assets. Many of the occupational themes highlighted are well reported and well known, strong active demand and take-up above the long-term average, a flight to quality to the best connected amenity-rich buildings, which are in short supply and with occupiers typically taking more space rather than less space. High fit-out costs, rising rents and the shortage of options will inevitably lead some occupiers to extend leases if that is an option for them. Our experience presenting 10 King Williams Street to potential occupiers is that company moves are frequently lease event and expansion driven. And interestingly, despite AI potentially driving efficiencies in those businesses, further expansion beyond their current requirements is often anticipated in the longer term.

Occupiers remain discerning and for those with a choice as to whether to move or not, we'll only do so if the new building provides them with what they need in order to convince fellow partners or the U.S. parent that it is required to attract and retain the best talent, enhance collaboration, productivity, brand and culture. Our focus on delivering market-leading design-led product puts us in a great position to satisfy that demand. With the shortage of space in the core markets and the inevitable jumps in headline rents, we are seeing a noticeable change in the interest levels in the best buildings adjacent to those core markets. At our Bower campus, the quality of offering, the all-in occupational cost, together with a resurgence of tech and AI-driven demand means that we have active discussions happening on all of the vacant spaces. This is an exciting and positive change. And it is interesting to note that these occupiers seem not to be considering those more budget options further away from transport connections or buildings that are otherwise compromised.

Another interesting theme we are seeing at the Bower and in the market more widely for floors typically 10,000 square foot and below is occupiers wanting to take that space not only fitted, but also wanting to bring in third-party management companies to run services for them within their space. Many have been used to service or fully managed solutions, and this bridges the gap as they move to larger premises this time with the benefit of the managed solutions that they actually want to pay for. This very much suits our own business model for the Bower. I should point out that our office development pipeline is quite different and that it focuses on our schemes, which would have much larger floor plates where occupiers take longer leases who wish to carry out their own bespoke fit-outs.

Turning now to the constrained pipeline in the core Central London submarkets, we believe that this window will be open for longer than many commentators suggest. Due to the lack of market distress, significant constraints of raised construction and finance costs and a retrofit first planning policy. Whilst this policy is an understandable ambition, it frequently delays permissions as developers try to justify their interventions to planning and heritage offices. With new build best-in-class product, one can be fairly confident of demand levels and likely rents achievable. However, the dilemma in a retrofit repositioning proposition is whether the interventions made will be sufficient to come on the rent needed to justify the investment.

The investment decisions, therefore, become more difficult, more nuanced and frequently delayed. Investment activity in Central London by the end of Q3 2025 reached GBP 6 billion, representing a 47% increase over the equivalent period in 2024. But this is still 24% below the long-term average. Encouragingly, there's been an uptick in the number of large lock size transactions, and we await the outcome of 7 transactions, which are due to exchange before Christmas. The increasing depth of buyers to the market is a positive sign and in particular, the reemergence of institutional capital, a further reduction in base rates would be an added stimulus making debt more accretive.

I'll now hand over to James to run through the financial results in more detail.

Good morning. Our GBP 245 million of sales last year provide the equity we need to take advantage of the market conditions Matthew has just outlined. Looking at the results, the profit after tax for the period was GBP 1.8 million with EPRA earnings per share of 2.4p. EPRA NTA increased slightly to 349p. And the C3 loan-to-value remains low at 28%. As you would expect, last year's sales resulted in lower net rental income at GBP 7.7 million. Through the use of joint venture and Equity Light structures, we enhance our returns by generating development management fees and promotes. The progress we have made on site has resulted in a significant increase in our development income to GBP 2.9 million. These were partially offset by development staff costs and other costs of GBP 1.4 million.

A reminder, at the end of the year -- at the year-end, we took the opportunity to reclassify the development start cost from admin to development profit, more appropriate aligning these costs with the value and income they create. We have continued this approach for the half year. Overall, we generated a development profit of GBP 1.5 million, slightly up from last year, with these profits due to increase further going forward. When we announced our new strategy a year ago, we undertook to reduce and rebase admin costs, ensuring we're well positioned to maximize our growth ambition. Our admin expense for the period fell by GBP 1.8 million, GBP 0.9 million of which was a result of reclassifying the development staff costs, but the remaining GBP 0.9 million reflects the savings of our leaner operating structure. The net impact is an increased EPRA profit. We achieved a net gain on sale and revaluation of GBP 2 million.

This was offset by a fall in the fair value of our interest rate swap of GBP 3.2 million resulting in an overall IFRS profit after tax of GBP 1.8 million. Our NTA of 348p at the beginning of the period was increased by the earnings per share of 2.4p and the revaluation of gains from our development activity of 1.7p. The payment of the prior year final dividend of 3.5p partially offset these gains resulting in EPRA NTA of 349p. Our dividend policy is to pay as a minimum, the period required by our REIT status. This will be supplemented by a share of capital profit from sales when appropriate. Following the announcement of our successful forward sale of 100 New Bridge Street, we stated our intention to return at least 50% of the profit from the sale when it completes, subject, of course, to wider business requirements. Today, we announced an interim dividend of 1.5p, maintaining the same level as the prior period and fully covered by the EPRA EPS.

During the period, we exercised our first extension option on the GBP 210 million RCF, and we're pleased that all 3 lenders confirm their support of the business and elected to participate. Our 2 development facilities funding 100 New Bridge Street and 10 King William Street continue to work well. Signing the forward sale of 100 New Bridge Street triggered a 100 basis point margin step down and this facility will be repaid once it completes. Our debt with HSBC on 10 King Williams Street contains margin step downs based on construction and letting progress. We began our initial discussions for the financing of Paddington in spring this year and received indicative terms from a number of lenders. As we pulled the options together in October, we were delighted that the improved market sentiment and quality of the scheme resulted in better terms being offered. We now have attractive and accretive terms from an institutional lender and looking to sign the facility alongside the site acquisition in January.

The slide shows our overall debt position with borrowings fully hedged and an extended maturity of 3.5 years. The average cost of debt on the RCF remains low at 3.5%. We have GBP 192 million of cash and undrawn facilities to fund the ongoing and future development activity and over GBP 90 million of equity due back from the sale of 100 New Bridge Street. Over the past 5 years, we have sold over GBP 620 million of assets, including 10 offices. For context, this is more than the total value of our portfolio today. These sales in challenging market conditions and combined with the forward sale of 100 New Bridge Street, evidence our ongoing commitment to recycling assets once we have achieved their business plan containing our gearing and allowing us to redeploy the equity into higher-yielding development opportunities. Our LTV remains low at 28%. And as previously guided, the increase was a result of building out the development pipeline.

Looking forward to the year-end, we are committed -- our committed CapEx program will take our LTV to 36%, ignoring the impact of valuation movements. However, once the sale of 100 New Bridge Street completes, this brings down the LTV to a pro forma position of around 17%, again, demonstrating our commitment to maintaining our balance sheet discipline. Helical is a capital growth stock and we target total accounting returns in excess of 10%, though the nature of these tend to be lumpy and driven by milestone events. Whilst our standing investment portfolio returns are lower than our cost of capital, they do cover the group's admin of funds cost and provide for the payment of the dividend.

As we get the available space at these assets, we will benefit from the increased rental income before we recycle them at the appropriate point. So it is from our development activities that we look to drive our growth with the value created recognized through revaluation gains, which are crystallized on the sale of the asset, combined with the development fees and promotes from the use of joint ventures and equity lights as they come through. The key triggers for the recognition of these gains and promotes outside of yield movement or sales is pre-letting or letting the space. And this is where we have been successful, setting new benchmarks rents for the submarkets we're in. Looking at our current and future secured pipeline, we believe there is GBP 85 million of value to come which could increase to GBP 170 million if we achieve rents 5% above the business plan and GBP 140 million if we hit 10%. Rob will explain our progress on each asset shortly.

So in summary, our focus is on finalizing our debt facility for Paddington, completing the sale of 100 New Bridge Street and the corresponding return of equity, structure and funding for the new opportunities, also whilst maintaining a strong balance sheet.

The past 6 months have seen considerable activity across our exciting development pipeline with nearly 1 million man hours worked. This morning, I'll take you through the progress that has been made on each of these schemes and the key milestones ahead. Let's begin with 100 New Bridge Street, where we remain on track to complete the development in April 2026. Since announcing the forward sale to State Street in April, we've worked closely with their project team to ensure the successful delivery of what will become their U.K. headquarters. It's been particularly satisfying for the team to witness their enthusiasm to move into the building and to watch their fit-out plans develop realizing the full potential of the space we have created.

As Matthew touched upon earlier, there is some evidence of increasing liquidity in capital markets with a sale of 100 New Bridge Street remaining one of the standout transactions. In fact, the net sales price of GBP 333 million based on GBP 100 per square foot ERV and a 5% yield continues to be the largest outright office sale in London this year. The pictures on this slide illustrate the scale of work that has been undertaken to ensure this building is repositioned as a true best-in-class asset. It's also worth highlighting the wholesale refurbishment and extension of the original 1990s building has been undertaken in just 24 months, in line with the ambitious original program. The scheme remains on budget and the final profit has to be taken upon practical completion.

Next, Brettenham House, where this comprehensive refurbishment project is anticipated to complete in Q3 2026. Brettenham, continues to represent the sort of project that differentiates Helical from our peers. It's an example of how we can adopt flexible capital structures such as our GBP 12.5 million secured loan to enable partnerships to be formed with existing building owners. It has also required Helical to utilize its full skill set to ensure the remodeling of this 1930s building is executed successfully. We are pleased to see the historic facade, striking marble staircases and other Art Deco features of the building, all elements that originally captured our imagination been carefully restored. As we head into the new year, the focus will shift to the leasing campaign. We have not actively marketed the building to date as construction work has been ongoing but we look forward to present in the building to prospective office tenants once work on-site reduces.

The site benefits from high footfall due to its prime location between Waterloo Bridge, the embankment and the strand. Recognizing this opportunity, a leading F&B brand approached us over the summer, and we have since agreed terms with them to occupy the ground floor retail unit. We are confident that their presence will further enhance the overall amenity of the scheme. As a reminder, Helical's returns on this project will be predominantly promote-based with payment due once 90% of the office space is let. The promoter is strongly correlated to rental performance, and we continue to see the potential for further upside on our equity-light investment as rental growth continues.

Now at 10 King William Street. As shown in this time lapse video, rapid progress has been made on the development of this extremely rare prime Island site. Work commenced at the start of the year and the concrete box and core were formed by the summer. Since that point, the focus has been upon erecting the steel work with 8 floors installed and the cladding is due to commence soon. The superstructure is due to top out before the end of the year, which will mark a key milestone for the Places for London joint venture with 10 King Williams Street being the first of the 3 initial sites to reach this point.

Practical completion remains scheduled for December 2026. And importantly, cost certainty has been secured with the interim final account now agreed. We continue to engage actively with a number of potential tenants, particularly from the legal and financial services sectors who are increasingly aware of the demand supply imbalance within the city of London. This center core building with virtually column-free floor plates has been designed to appeal to a broad range of requirements, enabling competition to be maximized.

Interest has ranged from organizations looking to occupy the whole of the 142,000 square foot building to tenants seeking to take combinations of close, and we remain open to either strategy. For reference, valuation ERVs are already 22% above the acquisition underwrite. With newbuild vacancy in the city at 0.5%, we anticipate further strong rental growth, which should drive future valuation gains.

At Southwark, we've agreed heads of terms with places for London for the forward funding of the PBSA building and with a Southwark Council for the forward sale of the affordable housing block. The final matters have been closed out at present, and both transactions are expected to exchange before the year-end. The quantum of the expected profit has been revised down marginally from GBP 25 million to GBP 19 million to reflect the forward funding structure and the impacts of refinements to the project budget as the design is developed during the period.

This continues to equate to an excess of a 3x equity multiple with further up potentially be unlocked via rental promote payment. The transactions will enable the JV to receive GBP 20 million gross profit payment upon commencement of development works with the balance of the profit due upon practical completion, which is anticipated in 2029. In addition, no further equity will be required to be invested by the JV partners from exchange of contracts. As you may have seen, Southwark Underground Station has recently been designated as Grade 2 listed. We have been aware of the potential for this to occur for some time. The station was originally designed with the intention for a building to be constructed above it. As such, we ensured that the consented scheme sensitively responded to the station structure from the outset.

The team have prepared the necessary list of building consents, and we will now submit these. Importantly, we do not anticipate that the listing will have any impact on program or budget. This project demonstrates our ability to deliver value from complex situations with a once capital-intensive office scheme being restructured now into an equity-light investment, delivering enhanced returns to the JV whilst also ensuring that the best value use for the site is adopted.

At Paddington, enabling works began over the summer, 6 months ahead of program. The tower crane has recently been installed on site, and construction of the 19-story building will begin early next year. Procurement for all key packages is well underway, and the tender returns received to date are encouragingly within budget. Through early engagement with the main contractor base, we have also managed to reduce the development program by almost a year compared to the original business plan with completion now anticipated in Q3 2028.

We are extremely excited to bring forward a scheme on what we believe to be the best site in Paddington, immediately adjacent to the station and with the reception open up to the vibrant canal side. The 235,000 square foot office scheme will feature highly sought after 15,000 square foot floor plates with terraces on every one of its 15 floors. With no new office starts in the submarket, we are well positioned to benefit from improving rental dynamics.

Moving to our investment assets. At The Loom, our largest tenant, Erdem, has extended their lease until 2036. Whilst 2 tenants vacated upon lease expiry, one new letting was secured and discussions continue with existing tenants who are considering expanding. The Aldgate market, in general, continues to experience comparatively high vacancy levels. The tenants are predominantly SMEs and have been impacted more by the economic challenges over the past few years. However, as with previous cycles, where The Loom has reached full occupancy, we do anticipate demand expanding as core markets become increasingly expensive.

At The Bower, we continue to see lots of activity across the campus with numerous discussions ongoing. The uptick in demand is driven by a range of factors. Firstly, occupiers are increasingly drawn by the bow as comparatively low all in occupational cost.

The price differential to more supply-constrained submarkets looks favorable and is expected to widen further with the business rates review due in April 2026. In addition, our strategy of offering a variety of finishes and specifications has been well received at present in the market. It's also noticeable that AI rather than reducing demand of office space is generating new requirements. Given Old Street's reputation as a tech and innovation hub, these new businesses are increasingly seeking to be located in and around the silicon round about.

The Bower is particularly well positioned, located beside the recently upgraded Urban Peninsula, which links directly into the station. With viewing levels of our highest in a number of years and a broad range of interest and discussions happening across the available space, we expect to be able to announce signed lettings in the very near future. Alongside the positive rise in interest levels, we have active discussions with existing occupiers throughout the warehouse to extend their leases.

Encouragingly, occupiers are exploring opportunities to take expansion space within the campus. This continues to demonstrate the benefit of our relationship-driven approach to asset management. All retail units continue to be occupied, adding vibrancy to the campus. The recent upgrade works undertaken at the cafe and the reception areas have also now completed. This investment significantly enhances the arrival experience for tenants and ensures the building continues to present as new.

In closing, the key priority remains The Bower where we are really encouraged by the rise in viewings, and we will seek to convert these in successful lettings. This will stabilize occupancy levels, strengthen the income profile of the asset and enable capital recycling to be contemplated in due course. Across the development assets, we're in a period of significant activity and we remain focused on maintaining program and budget discipline. As we approach PC on 3 of the schemes in 2026, our intention now is upon crystallizing value through translating the favorable market conditions in successful lettings.

I will now hand back to Matthew.

I would now like to touch on some of the exciting new projects that we have coming through with Places for London. The first of these is an office project at 63 Charterhouse Street which lies midway between our previous project at JJ Mack and at Kaleidescope, obviously at Smithfield. We've agreed terms for the acquisition of our share of the site on a subject to planning basis and our application was submitted last month. It will comprise 55,000 square foot new build, partly behind a retained facade shown on the left in the picture and benefits from a substantial roof tariffs accessed by a rooftop pavilion. It is, of course, an area well known to us and being so close to the Elizabeth line, we're very confident of its market appeal.

The second opportunity is a site immediately north of White City Underground Station adjacent to Imperial College's White City campus, where we are proposing a substantial student-led scheme. We expect to be working closely with Imperial College in considering our plans to maximize the opportunity. As you can see, we've already begun initial studies and intend to start planning discussions in the new year. Feasibility work is also underway on 2 other potential sites at Parsons Green in Fulham and North Acton, which could also come forward in due course, most likely again for student or living-led uses.

It is worth noting that whilst the wider PBSA sector has experienced some negative commentary of late, the schemes benefit -- all benefit from having exceptional connectivity to London's leading academic institutions, and we will be appraising them using the latest market data. One of the key benefits of these types of projects is that we have optionality to create equity-light structures through the forward funding models.

I would now like to conclude the presentation by summarizing what we see as Helical's market opportunity. The decision to build into the supply-constrained market looks to be well timed, and we're delivering the right product in the right submarkets. We are seeing encouraging occupier interest at our largest investment asset and we see the potential to significantly increase our rental income. By being experienced in delivering complex schemes with multiple uses, we are able to be nimble and pivot to the best value use for any given opportunity. We have rightsized the capital base of the business, but will not be constrained if further resource is required to capitalize on the market opportunity. Our long-term joint venture Places for London provides access to highly connected development opportunities, which can be brought forward where market conditions are favorable.

With the return of equity, from the 100 New Bridge Street sale, we will look to deploy this capital into new opportunities with Places for London and with other joint venture partners. Helical is a dynamic and agile capital growth business, which helped by its size and a disciplined approach to recycling equity seeks to outperform through its development-focused activities, adopting joint venture and equity like structures to drive enhanced returns.

Thank you for listening. And we're happy to move to questions.

It's Max Nimmo at Deutsche Numis. Just a couple of questions on -- particularly on those forward-looking things we're talking about there. In terms of the structures in terms of funding, how are you thinking about -- will the PBSA be sort of forward funded similar to what you've done in Southwark? And what are the kind of restrictions within the JV on that? And maybe just a second higher-level question. Just again, relating to -- obviously, you've got a very good track record in office development. But obviously, looking forward, it seems like there's quite a bit of PBSA there. Is this bit of a shift or more just kind of an opportunistic, this is what PFL want, and this is what we know we can deliver?

I think the student market well, there is a forward funding potential way to exit those projects. That's always going to be attractive to us because it makes our equity work very hard and you can see the equity multiples that what we're getting at Southwark. And if we can replicate that on a number of other schemes, we very much like to do so. And we do see this as a market opportunity. We've got -- we identified a site at White City, which is right next to Imperial College's campus. It just seemed a natural opportunity, the one at North Acton, whether it's deliverable or not, we'll see. But that, again, is next door to Imperial's facility where they have a lot of student accommodation. So I think it's purely opportunistic.

First and foremost, we're a Central London office developer. Paddington is a key project coming going forward. But we're very much out there looking for new office projects to deliver into this supply-constrained market. And I know this -- as I mentioned in my speech, I think the window is going to be open for longer than most people envisage. And there's a lot of real estate in the wrong hands, and we can help those people deliver these projects. So we're working with capital partners, but also partners hopefully with assets that we can bring our skill set to bear.

It's Matt Saperia from Peel Hunt. I guess both questions are really following on from Max. On the PBS, I think you talked about working very closely with Imperial could that mean some sort of lease on a building that you deliver for White City or North Acton? Or is there some other potential relationship there? And then back to offices, you're obviously very enthusiastic about the leasing momentum that you expect at The Bower. Does that sort of give you renewed interest on new opportunities in that part of the market, particularly working with, as you said, Matthew, people that own the real estate and is currently in the wrong hands?

Yes, sorry, remind me the first question [indiscernible]. I think ultimately, they're probably taking out the nominations element of those schemes rather than taking a lease of the whole. I think their interest is there probably. But you're on Central Line at White City, very close to a lot of other leading academic institutions. So I think the demand is going to be strong. But Imperial, we had a meeting with Imperial earlier in the week. I mean they've got a very strong demand for further accommodation.

In terms of the letting interest of The Bower, we've got 9 active negotiations ongoing, and we've got less floors than that available and so that does bode well. I think the whole sort of tech drones demand there is very much sort of AI-led in terms of its the tech demand is being bolstered by AI innovation. I think some of the tenants that we've got there are looking to expand, it's through that AI element of their business that is creating further demand for their product. Ultimately, when looking at opportunities, we always prefer undersupplied markets. So there are certain areas of London that we're not looking hard at, but there are lots of areas that we are looking hard at and we're active in negotiations with owners of that real estate to see how we can help.

But equally, we'll be out there pursuing sites that come up onto the market with capital partners as well because we want to make sure that we redeploy the equity that will be coming out of the 100 New Big Street sale. But for us, it's all about finding the right opportunity, using that equity structuring the right way, exiting and making sure that we recycle that equity.

Any other questions? I don't think there's any questions online either.

So on behalf of James, Rob and myself, thank you all for coming, but also a huge thank you for the Helical team for all of their hard work over the last few weeks and indeed a late night last night in order to get everything done. It is very much appreciated, and thank you all for coming.