Workspace has come through a torrid if predictable year of lower occupancy and rent per square foot, producing its first loss since the financial crisis. Trading profit was halved, asset value was clipped by a tenth, net assets per share were down 13.8 per cent and the year’s dividend fell from 36.16p a share to 17.75p after the interim was passed altogether.
That package disappointed the stock market, which took the shares down 29½, or 3 per cent, to 883p. But the real story is about the future.
The company sprang from Margaret Thatcher’s dismemberment of the Greater London Council in 1987 and the vast estate of empty offices that were thrown up by that. Most of its branches are on the east side of
