Hammerson sells Glasgow mall for £140m

Shopping centre owner Hammerson said it had sold Silverburn, a shopping centre near Glasgow and jointly owned by Hammerson and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, to affiliates of Henderson Park and Eurofund, for £140m.

This represented a 4% discount to book value of £147m and a net initial yield of 9.3%. The transaction was expected to complete in the first quarter of 2022. Hammerson has sold six non-core assets for £92m since the half year.

The other five assets sold totalling £22m represented a collection of non-strategic commercial and retail assets which were sold at a premium to book values.

“The proceeds of these disposals will further strengthen the balance sheet by reducing net debt, ahead of reinvestment in flagship assets for growth,” the company said.

Hammerson earlier this month said the outlook for net rental income was improving, mainly thanks to stronger collection rates and a better performance from value retail.

Assuming no new Covid restrictions, Hammerson at the time expected underlying earnings to be no less than £60m on an adjusted basis for the full-year, well ahead of previous forecasts of about £50m.

Hammerson, which had been suffering from a decline in demand for physical retail before the pandemic, was hit by Covid restrictions, which contributed to big falls in rental income and property valuations.

The company has so far written down the value of its portfolio to £5.5 billion. Its key retail sites include the Bullring centre in Birmingham, Bicester Village in Oxfordshire and Les Terrasses du Port in Marseilles.