U+I has sold three UK retail assets for a combined £22.4m.
It has disposed of the Crown Glass Shopping Centre in Nailsea, Somerset, for £11.15m; the remaining two units at the Killingworth Centre in Newcastle for £7.5m; and 89-107 Queen Street in Cardiff for £3.75m.
U+I said the assets were sold marginally below their combined book value as of the end of September.
The sales leave £25m in cash in U+I’s facility with Aviva, which it plans to reinvest.
The news of the completed sales follows a warning last week from U+I that it expected to fall short of the lower end of its development and trading gains forecast for this year. The firm blamed Brexit and the political uncertainty last year for it missing its targets and said the situation was being exacerbated by the outbreak of Covid-19.
Matthew Weiner, chief executive of U+I, said: “These disposals demonstrate further progress in our investment portfolio transition strategy as we focus on building a dynamic, flexible portfolio, driven by placemaking regeneration in our core geographies.
“It shows some resilience to have managed to complete these disposals at so close to aggregate half-year book value in this challenging environment, where decision-making has almost ground to a halt and valuations are increasingly pressured.
“For now, our priority is to preserve cash but, once conditions start to approach normality, we will review opportunities to acquire regeneration-focused assets, while increasingly moving some components of our own development assets into our investment portfolio to drive long-term value.”
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