Beleaguered shopping centre owner Intu made a loss of £2bn in the year to 31 December 2019.
The owner of Manchester’s Trafford Centre and Lakeside at Thurrock, Essex blamed the loss mainly on a 23% fall in property values over the year.
Earlier this year the company approached its shareholders to ask for more money amid a downturn in the retail sector, before abandoning the emergency fund raising because “extreme market conditions” deterred investors from giving fresh cash.
In Thursday’s results statement it said: “Our results are evidence of the challenges in our market, in particular structural changes ongoing in the retail sector, with some weaker retailers struggling to remain relevant in a multi-channel environment. This has led to a higher level of administrations and CVAs and has been exacerbated by the continued weak consumer confidence from the political and economic uncertainty in the UK,” it said.
As a result, the company’s revenue fell by 9.1% in 2019, with more than half the change coming from Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) and administration processes.
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