Intu

Intu Properties plc is a British real estate investment trust (REIT), largely focused on shopping centre management and development. The company owns or part-owns 17 shopping centres in the UK and one in Spain.

Intu Properties plc
Intu Group
Formerly
Liberty International plc
Capital Shopping Centres Group plc
Public limited company
Traded asLSE: INTU, JSE: ITU
ISINGB0006834344 
IndustryProperty
Founded1980 (1980)
(as Liberty International)
FounderDonald Gordon
HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
Area served
United Kingdom, Spain
Key people
John Strachan
(Chairman)
John Whittaker
(Deputy Chairman)
Matthew Roberts
(Chief Executive Officer)
ProductsInvestment and development of shopping centres and other commercial property
Revenue£542.3 million (2019)[1]
£(1,542.7) million (2019)[1]
£(2,021.8) million (2019)[1]
DivisionsIntu List of Properties
Websitewww.intugroup.co.uk

Originally named Liberty International plc, it changed its name in May 2010 to Capital Shopping Centres Group plc after demerging its Capital & Counties Properties business unit to form an independent business. The company was renamed Intu Properties plc on 18 February 2013, and this was followed by the rebrand of most of its shopping centres under the Intu name from May 2013.

The company's shares were listed on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges until it entered administration in June 2020.

History
Former Liberty International logo

The company was established by Sir Donald Gordon in 1980 under the name Transatlantic Insurance Holdings plc as an offshoot Liberty Life Association of Africa, a business he had founded in 1957.[2] The company developed into a leading investor in life assurance businesses in the 1980s and divested its remaining life assurance interests (a 29% holding in Sun Life) in 1991.[3] In 1992 it merged with Capital & Counties, a leading shopping centre developer, so securing itself a listing on the London Stock Exchange.[3] It changed its name to Liberty International in 1996[3] and, after demerging Capital & Counties Properties in May 2010, renamed itself Capital Shopping Centres Group (CSC).[4]

The company also disposed of a significant holding in its Californian subsidiary Capital and Counties USA, which was acquired by Equity One in May 2010.[5] Equity One was later acquired by Regency Centers Corporation.[6]

In 2011, CSC purchased the Trafford Centre from The Peel Group and offered a 20% stake in CSC to Peel chairman John Whittaker. The 20% stake in CSC was worth approximately £700m at the time, valuing the Trafford Centre at approximately £1.65 billion.[7] Whittaker continued to purchase shares after the takeover and became the largest shareholder in 2012, with a stake of 24.63%.[8]

Former Capital Shopping Centres logo

CSC purchased the Westfield Group's 75% stake in Westfield Broadmarsh in Nottingham in November 2011.[9]

Rebrand as Intu

In January 2013, CSC announced its rebranding as Intu and the renaming of twelve of its shopping centres to incorporate the new consumer-facing brand.[10][11] A new orange and black brand identity was introduced at the same time, including a bird logo said to represent a "symbol of joy".[12] At the same time and in response to changing consumer behaviour, Intu launched the UK's first online shopping centre and insourced all shopping centre staff, previously employed by facilities management company Bilfinger Europa.[13]

The 2013 logo in landscaped form at Intu Trafford Centre

2013 to 2019

The company announced on 27 February 2013 that it had agreed to purchase Midsummer Place in Milton Keynes (now Intu Milton Keynes) from Legal & General for £250.5 million. The sale was completed by the end of March 2013.[14]

In March 2014, Intu announced that it had purchased the Merry Hill Centre (now Intu Merry Hill) and Westfield Derby (now Intu Derby) for a £867.8m property deal that saw Intu take complete ownership of Westfield's Derby shopping centre and Sprucefield Park in Northern Ireland.[15]

In December 2017, the company agreed to a takeover by property development company Hammerson for £3.4 billion, subject to shareholder approval.[16] In April 2018, Hammerson recommended its shareholders reject the proposed takeover.[17] With Intu hit by declining footfall on the high street and failures among major retailers, Peel Group, Olayan Group, and Brookfield Property launched a £2.8bn takeover bid in October, but, after due diligence procedures, they withdrew the offer in November 2018.[18]

In November 2019, Intu said it was in talks to sell three Spanish shopping centres: Puerto Venecia in Zaragoza, intu Asturias in Oviedo, and intu Xanadu in Madrid. In December 2019, it sold its share in the Zaragoza asset for €237.7 million,[19] delivering net proceeds of around €115m.[20] The following month it sold its Oviedo asset, raising around €85 million.[21]

2020

In March 2020, Intu abandoned a £1.3 billion emergency cash call as not enough investors were willing to support the call. The company had £4.5 billion of debt.[22] The company subsequently warned it could collapse if unable to raise further funds, after reporting a loss of £2bn for 2019. Intu shares had lost almost 90% of their value in a year, and the results announcement prompted a 25% drop to just over 4p.[23] On 26 March, as the COVID-19 pandemic prompted more retailers to delay rent payments to Intu, the company warned it would need some waivers from its lenders and was likely to breach its debt covenants in July; its shares fell 11% to 3.6p in the first hour of trading following the warning.[24] On 23 June 2020, the company warned that shopping centres might close if financial restructuring talks with lenders failed, and lined up KPMG as administrators as a "contingency".[25] On 26 June, Intu went into administration.[26]

Properties
The Trafford Centre is Intu's most valuable asset at £1.66 billion

As of 31 December 2019 the company's investment properties were valued at £5.9 billion.[1] Intu owns or part-owns 17 shopping centres in the UK:

Name Market value[1] (in £m) Location Ownership
intu Braehead £288.9m Renfrew, Renfrewshire (near Glasgow) Intu 100%
intu Broadmarsh N/A Nottingham, Nottinghamshire Intu 70%, Nottingham City Council 30%
intu Chapelfield £106.5 Norwich, Norfolk Intu 50%, LaSalle Investment Management 50%
intu Derby £77.3m Derby, East Midlands
intu Eldon Square £214.1m Newcastle, Tyne and Wear Intu 60%, Newcastle City Council 40%
intu Lakeside £1,000m (£1 billion) West Thurrock, Essex (near London) Intu 100%
intu Metrocentre £676.8m Gateshead, Tyne and Wear Intu 54%, GIC Real Estate 36%, Church Commissioners 10%
intu Merry Hill £587.6m Dudley, West Midlands Intu 100% as of June 2016[27]
intu Milton Keynes £212.5m Milton Keynes Intu 100%
intu Potteries £301m Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
intu Trafford Centre £1,669.5m (£1.66 billion) Trafford, Greater Manchester
intu Uxbridge N/A Uxbridge, Greater London Intu 20%, Kumpulan Wang Persaraan 80%
intu Victoria Centre £201.0m Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
intu Watford £324.9m Watford, Hertfordshire Intu 93%, Watford Borough Council 7%
The Mall at Cribbs Causeway £217m Almondsbury, Gloucestershire (near Bristol) Intu/M&G Real Estate 66%, JT Baylis 34%
Manchester Arndale Centre £309.0m Manchester, Greater Manchester Intu/M&G Real Estate 95.3%, Others 4.7%
St. David's £230.0m Cardiff Intu 50%, Land Securities 50%
Xanadu £233.8m Madrid, Spain intu 50%, TH Real Estate 50%
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References
  1. "Results for year ended 31 December 2019". London Stock Exchange RNS. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
  2. "Sir Donald Gordon - CV". Archived from the original on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  3. "Intu: History". Intu Properties.
  4. "The UK's 10 most shorted stocks". City Wire. 21 September 2010. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  5. "Equity One (EQY) Announces $600M Acquisition of Capital and Counties USA". Street Insider. 24 May 2010. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  6. "Regency Centers and Equity One Announce Closing of Merger" (Press release). Business Wire. 1 March 2017.
  7. Thompson, Thomas (25 November 2010). "Trafford Centre set for £1.6bn sale to CSC group". The Independent. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
  8. "Whittaker spends £2m on CSC shares". Place North West. 14 March 2012. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  9. "Westfield sells Nottingham's Broadmarsh shopping centre". BBC. 10 November 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
  10. "Mall owner CSC to change name to intu properties". Reuters. 15 January 2013.
  11. "CSC announces new consumer brand and new online shopping portal". Intu Properties plc. 15 January 2013.
  12. Trafford Centre staff get makeover as redcoats axed, Manchester Evening News, January 2013
  13. "Award Winners 2015" (PDF). BIFM. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  14. "Acquisition of Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes" (Press release). Intu Properties plc. 27 February 2013.
  15. "Merry Hill centre bought in £407.7m deal". 20 March 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  16. "Shopping centres sold in £3.4bn deal". 6 December 2017. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  17. "Bullring owner Hammerson pulls back from Intu takeover". BBC News. 18 April 2018. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  18. "Another Intu rescue deal fails". The Construction Index. 29 November 2018. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  19. Collard, George (23 December 2019). "intu Properties Completes Spanish Sale To Carry On Cutting Debt". MorningStar. Allianc News. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
  20. "Intu sells Spanish mall for €475m". QuotedData. 23 December 2019. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
  21. Jahshan, Elias (28 January 2020). "Intu sells another Spanish shopping centre for £245m". Retail Gazette. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
  22. Sweney, Mark (4 March 2020). "Struggling shopping centre owner Intu abandons £1bn cash call". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  23. Kollewe, Julia; Partridge, Joanna (12 March 2020). "Trafford Centre and Lakeside owner warns it could go bust after £2bn loss". Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  24. Hammond, George (26 March 2020). "Intu suffers as commercial tenants withhold rent". Financial Times. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  25. "Intu warns shopping centres may close as funding talks continue". BBC News. 23 June 2020. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  26. "Shopping centre giant Intu enters administration". BBC News. BBC. 26 June 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  27. "Merry Hill owner Intu accelerating plans for shopping centre revamp « Express & Star". Expressandstar.com. 28 July 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2017.
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