Hammerson and intu’s merger deal remains “on track” with closing expected in the fourth quarter of the year.
“There are two gating items, one is the shareholder votes for both companies, which will happen in the spring, but the one with the longer lead time is CMA approval,” said Matthew Roberts, intu’s chief financial officer.
“The feedback from our shareholders is that they are very supportive and Hammerson has a number of irrevocables on its register and we had positive feedback when it was announced.”
Roberts declined to comment whether the £3.4bn merger, which was announced in December, had been subject to any third-party interest looking to unseat the deal or rival approaches.
Intu’s share price rose from 199p to 226p when the deal was announced but has now dropped to 212p.
Roberts said this was a reflection of general sentiment towards the retail and shopping sector rather than a reflection of there being any reason the deal would not happen.
“It is an all-share deal so the logic of the transaction is as true now as it was then.
“Every shopping centre of scale has had a weakening of its share price over the past few months with concerns about the threat from online retailing,” he said.
Intu posted a relatively resilient set of full year results for 2017 considering the retail trading environment.
Overall, the value of its portfolio rose 0.5% to £10.5bn. This was buoyed by its Spanish holdings growing by 6.4%, while its UK “super” centres were down by 0.3% and UK “major city centres” were down by 0.6%.
Like-for-like rents grew by 0.5% over the year after a sluggish first half and 2.4% growth in H2.
Intu posts increase in footfall ahead of merger
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