Hammerson PLC (LON:HMSO) saw the value of its assets continue to subside in the first half of the year but the retail property developer has achieved most of its disposal plans with the sale of a Parisian shopping centre for £423mln.
At the end of June, EPRA net asset value was down 7% year on year at 685p per share, as the portfolio valuation fell 4%, with UK shopping centres down 9%, retail parks down 11%, France down 4%, Ireland down 3% but premium outlets up 4.5%.
Adjusted earnings per shares declined 7.3% to 14p as rental income fell 12.3% to £156.6mln due to the disposal programme, though like-for-like net rent was flat overall, despite declines for UK shopping centres driven by tenant failures.
Dividend held with debt in focus
The dividend was held flat at 11.1p, as had been flagged by management earlier in the year, while at the end of June net debt remained at £3.4bn.
Management chose to focus on the £456mln of disposals, out of the £500mln targeted for the year, with the bulk of this from the sale of a 75% share of Italie Deux and Italik extension for £423mln, which was announced separately on Monday at 8.5% below book value, reducing net debt to £3.1bn.
“The UK retail landscape is undoubtedly challenging and traditional high street fashion is under pressure,” said chief executive David Atkins.
He said Hammerson was focused on shifting rentals “towards categories with greater customer appeal and rental growth potential”, which has resulted in over 90% of new leases being made with larger consumer and food and drink brands.
“Our absolute priority remains to reduce debt,” he stated, adding that although the tough environment was resulting in deals taking longer, “we are now most of the way there”.
Analysts disappointed
Broker Liberum said NAV was 4% below its forecast and noted that disposals being below book value suggested “the group is having to divest of higher quality assets to reduce leverage”.
Analysts at Peel Hunt said that given the higher-than-expected valuation decline, “today’s disposals effectively reduce LTV back to where Hammerson started the year at 43% pro forma” and that they expect to reduce NAV forecasts by around 5% to circa 645p and to reduce EPS to circa 27p from 29.2p.
Shares in the FTSE 250 group were up 0.2% to 270.9p on Monday morning.