Fashion

Westfield owner URW reports 14.2 drop in global net rental income


Westfield owner URW reports 14.2 drop in global net rental income

Shopping centre operator Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) has reported a
14.2 percent drop in net rental income across its global destinations for
the first half of the year to 1 billion euros (960 million pounds).

Collections for its UK destinations were down 34.1 percent.

In mid-March, almost all of the company’s centres were forced to close.
As of June 30, 97 percent of the stores within URW’s European centres were
open. In the US, 77 percent of its stores and 86 percent of GLA had
reopened as of the same date. Footfall in the European centres has shown
“an encouraging recovery”, the company said.

It collected 67 percent of rents from its shopping centres in H1, with 3
percent of Q2 rents forgiven through rent relief, 20 percent deferred
either by agreement or by application of law, and 39 percent overdue and to
be recovered.

As at July 24, collection for July stood at 50percent. “The Group
expects an improvement following completion of ongoing tenant negotiations
regarding COVID-19 assistance,” it said.

Christophe Cuvillier, group CEO, said: “After the reopening, the
footfall and sales have been recovering better than anticipated. This shows
our centres continue to be attractive destinations for people to visit and
will see further increases in activity as life returns to normal. During
the crisis, URW successfully focused on preserving liquidity, by raising
funds on the debt markets, deferring non-essential CAPEX, reducing the
pipeline, cancelling the final dividend and implementing cost savings.

The Group now has a record 12.7 billion euros of cash and undrawn credit
facilities available. Despite the adverse conditions, the Group
successfully closed the disposal of a 54.2 percent stake in a portfolio of
five French centres. URW is committed to de-leveraging, and reiterates its
plans to dispose the remaining 4 billion euros of its asset disposal
programme over the next couple of years.”

Photo credit: Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield



READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.