Shopping centre landlord Hammerson (HMSO) fell 5.2% to 36p despite encouraging recent footfall following England’s reopening on 12 April as it collected less than half of the rent due for the first half of 2021.
Overall, rental collection rates stood at 46%, encompassing 48% in the UK, 28% in France and 34% in Ireland.
The figures show how Hammerson has been rocked by the pandemic - which accelerated existing structural headwinds as retail spending migrates from physical shops to online.
ENCOURAGING FOOTFALL RECOVERY
‘Initial footfall recovery in England is encouraging, and around 90% of operators are currently able to trade. Footfall is competitive with pre-pandemic levels,’ the company said.
‘Across a seven-day average, footfall at our flagships is around four-fifths of that achieved in the same week in April 2019. This is an improvement of approaching 50 percentage points on reopening in June 2020,’ it added.
The owner of the Brent Cross and Bullring shopping centres also announced the appointment of former G4S (GFS) and Countrywide numbers man Himanshu Raja as its new finance director.
Investment bank Jefferies commented: ‘It’s a reopening trade and footfall recovery in England is fairly encouraging with 90% of operators open for business.
‘As retailers emerge from Lockdown 3, however, the reality of a higher (online) retail sales penetration rate (35% vs 30%) will, we think, be reasserted.’
