Crown Estate’s marine portfolio increases to £4.1bn
The Queen’s property company, Crown Estates, saw its value rise by 7.5% to £14.4bn on the construction of an offshore wind farm.
This happened despite a drop in revenue from high street real estate due to the pandemic.
Some of the world’s biggest energy companies made huge bids for subsea leases in February, increasing the value of the Crown Estate’s offshore portfolio to £4.1bn, The Times reported.
Meanwhile, the Crown Estate saw its land property portfolio fall by £1.1bn as occupiers of commercial property units were unable to pay rent due to the pandemic.
As a result, profits for the company, which operates on behalf of the Queen, fell 22% to £269.3m in the 2020/21 financial year.
The Crown Estate donates its profits to the Treasury. The Treasury then gives a portion of this amount to the Crown as a ‘sovereign grant’.
The Crown Estate expects its income to rise significantly over the next few years as the energy company begins paying £879m a year to build wind farms.
“All things being equal, we should see healthy income from offshore wind over the next few years,” Crown Estate CEO Dan Labad told the Times.
“We are not out of the woods yet. We are still operating under lockdown and we don’t know how foot traffic will pick up,” he said. “The pandemic has highlighted a new normal of challenges and uncertainty, and while there is no doubt we will continue to face a difficult year ahead, given the progress made in vaccination programs and the resilience of society as a whole, There’s a reason for that. We need to be cautiously optimistic,” he added.
