Hammerson to sell its retail parks for £350m

STRUGGLING Hammerson is in talks to sell all its retail parks for a reported £350m.

The landlord, owner of Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre, is trying to bolster its finances after crashing to a record loss in 2020.

Hammerson has already made £73m this year from the sale of its Brent South Shopping Park in north London and minority stakes in two other centres.

And yesterday the company confirmed that it was in talks with Brookfield, a Canadian private equity firm, about the potential sale of all seven of its retail parks.

‘There can be no certainty that a transaction will take place or the terms on which any transaction may occur,’ Hammerson told investors.

Under boss Rita-Rose Gagne (pictured), who was appointed last year, the firm has launched a major review of its portfolio. She has vowed to cut the company’s £2bn debt mountain by selling assets. The move comes after national lockdowns during the pandemic forced all but essential shops to close, cutting Hammerson’s rental income in half to £157.6m during 2020. At the same time, the value of its properties plunged by almost one quarter to £6.3bn as the pandemic caused shoppers to shun high streets for online. The twin declines were the worst in Hammerson’s history and resulted in the company’s losses widening from £779m to a record £1.7bn.

As it grappled with the virus crisis, Hammerson raised £532m from investors by selling shares and another £328m from selling assets. That helped reduce debts from £2.8bn to £2.2bn.

Yesterday Hammerson said it is continuing to sell more assets in an effort to ‘further strengthen the balance sheet’.

Hammerson’s retail park portfolio consists of parks in Falkirk, Didcot near Oxford, Middlesbrough, St Helens, Telford, Merthyr Tydfil and Rugby.

They are among some of the more valuable properties and are still trading robustly, compared to other parts of the estate.

This is because they benefit from large supermarket stores and wide open spaces, which shoppers have favoured during the pandemic.