By Samantha Machado and Yadarisa Shabong

Mall and office owner British Land has conducted a series of rent deferrals and cancellations to help the company and its tenants ride out the coronavirus crisis, it said after annual losses soared to 1.1 billion pounds ($1.36 billion).

With the pandemic having shut thousands of shops and forced some chains into administration, the owner of London's Broadgate and Paddington Central complexes said the value of its retail properties had slumped by 26%.

Shares in the company, down 36% this year, recovered about 6% in morning trade as strength in its offices portfolio offset the headline number in Wednesday's results.

"Given nearly all non-essential shops, food and drink and leisure outlets remain closed, the collapse in value of this part of the portfolio is entirely unsurprising, as are difficulties in getting rent from tenants in these sectors," AJ Bell analyst wrote.

"At the moment the company has robust enough financial foundations to withstand a further significant collapse in the valuation of its assets. For now the value of its offices are holding up and most of its tenants are paying rent on time."

British Land, which also owns Sheffield's huge Meadowhall centre, said it had written off 2 million pounds in rent for March to June from small food vendors and deferred another 35 million pounds to be paid back gradually.

It collected less than half of retail rents due to the end of April and said the bulk were owed by strong companies and that the crisis has had little impact so far on collection of dues for office space.

On a day that saw rival mall owner Hammerson announce that its long-time CEO is stepping down, British Land reported that its loss after tax widened to 1.1 billion pounds for the year to March 31, against 320 million pounds a year earlier, while its net asset value declined only 14.5% to 774 pence.

The company said it now plans to reduce its retail holdings to 25-30% of its portfolio, down from 30-35%.

($1 = 0.8112 pounds)

(Reporting by Samantha Machado and Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by David Goodman)