Shopping centre owner to ask for extra cash in bid to ease debts

ONE of Britain’s biggest shopping centre owners has revealed it will be tapping up shareholders for extra cash to pay down its debts.

Intu Properties, which owns several shopping centres including Lakeside in Essex and St David’s Shopping Centre in Cardiff in a joint venture with Land Securities, said the money will be raised next month ahead of the company’s results.

Bosses have already warned that its £5bn debt pile is too high and are in the process of selling off assets to pay it down.

The company said: “Intu properties continues to make progress in its strategy to fix the balance sheet.

“Consistent with previous announcements, this now includes targeting an equity raise alongside its full year results at the end of February.

“The company is currently engaged in constructive discussions with both shareholders and potential new investors on the proposed equity raise.”

An equity raise involves issuing new shares to raise extra cash - but this tends to push the current share price down, which could upset current investors.

Matthew Roberts, Intu chief executive, said: “We are making good progress with fixing the balance sheet, our number one priority, and are confident we have the right strategy in place to enable us to prosper as we see continued polarisation between the best destinations and the rest.”

He added that footfall to Intu’s UK centres was flat during the Christmas period compared with a year earlier which was ahead of falls across the market more broadly.