Hammerson secures £362m from Paris shopping complex sale

Birmingham Bullring owner Hammerson has sold its majority stake in a Paris shopping complex as it looks to turn around its fortunes.

The company has sold a number of sites in recent months as it looks to ease the pressure currently facing retail property firms.

Hammerson has seen its share value slide by 21.7% over the past 12 months and swung to a £319.8 million loss in the half year to June 30, from a £55.7 million profit for the same period last year.

On Thursday, it said it completed the sale of its 75% stake in the Italie Deux shopping destination in the French capital to AXA Investment Managers for 430 million euro (£362 million).

The shopping centre owner said the sale price represents an 8.5% discount on the site’s book value from December 2018, and is “marginally below” its June 2019 valuation.

It added that the forward sale of a 75% stake of an extension of the site, for an additional 43 million euro (£36.3 million), has also been agreed.

The Italik extension will add 6,400 square metres of extra space to the Italie Deux site.

Hammerson said in July that the extension of the site, which houses retailers such as Zara, is due to open in September 2020 and 41% of units have been pre-let.

Proceeds from the sale of the site, which welcomes 12 million visitors each year, will be “used to reduce debt and strengthen the balance sheet”, Hammerson said.

The sale comes a month after Hammerson sold the St Oswald’s Retail Park in Gloucester to the local council for £54 million.

Shares in Hammerson dipped 1.3% to 289.9p in early trading.

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