Capital & Regional increased its first-half underlying pretax profits by 17% to £17.6m. Financial Times. The Times

However, statutory pretax profit, which the company said was distorted by one-off items, fell from £146.3m to £53.5m.

The retail warehouse developer, property manager and investment fund said occupancy levels and tenant demand remained strong at the Mall, a chain of 23 shopping centres that it manages as a minority shareholder.

However, a decline in the value of retail property meant that investor return on equity had fallen to 4.8%, compared with 19.2% at June 2006.

Martin Barber, chief executive, said: ‘While we are seeing significant volatility in the capital markets, which has had an impact on property company share prices, this should not distract us from the underlying strength of the property markets. ‘