Intu gets a mall-ing

SHOPPING centre giant Intu has slashed the value of its property empire by £1.4billion.

The owner of Braehead, near Glasgow, right, Manchester’s Trafford Centre and Newcastle’s Metrocentre cut how much its properties are worth by 13 per cent to £9.2billion amid the high street retail crisis.

The number of shoppers visiting its malls dropped 1.6 per cent last year, albeit not as bad as the wider market.

Intu’s debts stand at £4.8billion, half the value of its assets. PROFITS at Big Six supplier Scottish Power leapt last year. The Spanish-owned giant made £272million in its energy generation and retail arm in 2018, up 187 per cent on 2017.

The announcement came a day after the supplier confirmed prices for 900,000 standard variable tariff customers would rise 10 per cent on April 1.

Profits at Scottish Power’s energy network arm rose five per cent to £813million, and in its renewable energy division, by 33 per cent to £458million. DAIRY giant Arla is handing its whole £252million annual profit back to farmers hit by last summer’s drought across Europe.

It usually only gives back part of what it makes to farmers who own the firm.

The boost came as Arla, which owns butter brands Anchor and Lurpak as well as milk Cravendale, revealed UK sales rose 3.3 per cent to top the £2billion mark for the first time. WITH TRICIA PHILLIPS LEEDS Building Society is giving firsttime buyers an extra helping hand by reducing rates on mortgages for those with five per cent deposits.

It has reduced rates by up to 0.33 per cent and now offers a two-year fix at 2.74 per cent with a £999 fee, or 3.09 per cent fee-free or a fiveyear fix of 3.79 per cent fee-free.

But there are still cheaper fixedrate deals available elsewhere as the first-time buyer market is becoming more and more competitive.

Barclays offers a two-year fix at 2.77 per cent, while Saffron Building Society has a three-year fix at 3.07, both fee-free. Monmouthshire Building Society has a five-year fix at 3.19 per cent and Skipton Building Society offers 3.28 per cent – both fee-free.

Darren Cook of Moneyfacts.co.uk said: “There clearly seems to be a concerted drive by mortgage providers to try and secure the business of potential first-time buyers who are the lifeblood of the property markets. It is encouraging to see rates decrease as a result of some healthy competition.” DUBAI-based ports giant DP World has bought back ferry and shipping freight firm P&O Ferries for £322million, more than a decade after selling it.