By BFN News | 02:18 PM | Friday 12 March, 2021 Shopping centre owner Hammerson wrote down the value of its property portfolio to £6.3 billion in 2020 as the company posted the largest decline in net rental income in its history and disposed of some assets.
The company reported net rental income of £158 million in 2020, down 41% on a like-for-like basis excluding premium outlets, largely impacted by Covid-19 closures, tenant restructuring and higher provisions for bad debt and tenant incentives.
Its portfolio value fell from £8.3 billion in 2019 to £6.3 billion in 2020, while group capital return was negative 20.9%.
The group reported net proceeds from disposals totalling £328 million and said it will continue to target disposals .
Hammerson, the owner of Birmingham s Bullring and London s Brent Cross, has cut the valuations of its shopping centres by almost £2billion after suffering the biggest drop in rental income in its history.
As retailers struggled to pay rent during lockdowns as stores remained closed, Hammerson saw net rental income across its shopping centres in the UK, Ireland and France nearly halve to £158million last year.
That caused a huge writedown in its property portfolio to £6.3billion at the end of 2020, from £8.3billion a year earlier, that in turn saw the company swing to a £1.7billion loss last year.
Bullring owner Hammerson swung to a £1.7bn loss last year and has debts of £2.2bn