The ongoing saga of Hammerson and intu’s merger took another twist last week, fuelling the growing gap in the two retail landlords’ stock market performance.
Hammerson published a trading statement on Thursday saying it would not finalise the documents for its bid for intu until Klépierre clarified its takeover bid for Hammerson. The possibility of a merger with the French firm and the resultant diversified portfolio, alongside a slight uptick in valuations, kept Hammerson’s share price up 0.4%.
By contrast, intu’s share price continued its fall, finishing the week down 1.5% at 204.6p. It was trading at 199p before Hammerson made its offer in December, which priced intu at 253.9p.
Value in both companies grew until the start of January when they started a steady two-month decline. While intu’s share price has largely flat-lined since then, Hammerson’s skyrocketed after Klépierre’s bid was revealed last month.
However, David Atkins, chief executive of Hammerson, said last week that he had not heard back from Klépierre since the initial approach.
Elsewhere, the listed property market had a broadly positive week, outperforming both the FTSE 100 and the FTSE 250. The wider markets experienced a bump on 5 April when worries over an all-out trade war between the US and China eased.
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