Hammerson shopping centre slump

HAMMERSON saw shares tumble after a fall in the value of its property empire.

The shopping centre group, which owns Birmingham’s Bullring, said its estate was worth £5.1bn at the end of 2022, down from £5.4bn 12 months earlier.

Hammerson said it carried out ‘a disciplined programme of disposals’ of unwanted sites and was focusing the business on ‘prime city centre’ locations.

It completed £195m of disposals last year and pledged a further £300m of sell-offs by December 2023.

Market confidence was also knocked by a decline in rental income from £250.4m in 2021 to £215.2m. Shares plunged 11.5pc, closing at 25.94p.

Broker Peel Hunt said Hammerson’s balance sheet required ‘some TLC’. But chief executive Rita-Rose Gagne said the company had made progress despite ‘a volatile macroeconomic and market backdrop’.