Shopping centre owner Hammerson seeks Dublin listing to keep EU foothold

Shopping centre giant Hammerson has said it is seeking a secondary listing in Dublin ahead of the UK’s looming exit from the EU.

The company, which owns Birmingham’s Bullring, will keep a foothold in the EU by listing with the Euronext Dublin stock market.

The FTSE 250 company said it expects its shares to begin trading in Ireland as early as next week.

Hammerson said that the secondary listing will enable to it maintain an “efficient” business structure across its European portfolio.

As of June, the company owned and operated £1.2 billion worth of shopping destinations in France and £800 million worth of property in Ireland.

It said that about 27% of its share capital was held by institutional investors based in the European Economic Area, excluding the UK, as of November 23.

After January 1, the UK will no longer be inside the EU single market for financial services and the country’s access rights will be decided independently by Brussels.

The UK Government has lobbied for its regulations to be recognised as equivalent to the EU’s but the issue remains uncertain as the transition period draws to a close.

Hammerson’s secondary listing comes weeks after warehousing group Segro launched a secondary listing in Paris in preparation for the Brexit.