Philip Green’s abandoned £9.1bn takeover approach prompted Marks & Spencer to realise that it is sitting on a £3.6bn property fortune.
The DTZ valuation found that the 500 properties owned by the retailer are worth £1.4bn more than at 30 March 2003.
The portfolio, which includes 12.8m sq ft of selling space, comprises £1.8bn worth of freeholds, £1.6bn of long leaseholds and £36m of short leaseholds.
But the retailer, whose investors this week backed the board and chief executive Stuart Rose, has no plans to sell off its “crown jewels” or securitise rental streams, according to executive director Charles Wilson.
M&S has explored both options as a means to raise funds, but when it unveiled plans to return £2.3bn to shareholders on Monday, Wilson said it was cheaper for the retailer to raise bank debt.
Wilson has taken charge of property, IT and supply chain.
His tasks include increasing M&S’s out-of-town stores – it presently has just 19.
Wilson said M&S’s 70,000 sq ft Lifestore in Gateshead, which will close under Rose’s recovery plan, could be turned into a conventional store or sold off.
DTZ also identified 29 surplus properties, but M&S has no immediate plans to sell.
References: EGi News 16/07/04
