Irish retail sites not for sale as Hammerson eyes more disposals

Hammerson is not looking to sell any of its Irish interests as part of its latest disposal round. It co-owns the Dundrum Town Centre in Dublin and has a minority stake in the Kildare Village retail outlet, above.

UK retail developer and landlord Hammerson has no intention of selling its stakes in the Kildare Village shopping outlet nor its other Irish assets, despite looking to sell off a number of its retail parks in order to strengthen its balance sheet.

Hammerson has confirmed that it has opened discussions with Canadian private equity firm Brookfield, with a view to selling some of its retail parks in the UK as it moves to shore up its balance sheet after being decimated by Covid closures last year.

"As announced at its full-year results, the company continues to make asset disposals in liquid markets to further strengthen the balance sheet," Hammerson said in a brief statement in response to media speculation over a deal.

The company is, reportedly, looking to sell seven retail parks across England, Wales, and Scotland. 

While the exact locations haven’t formally been named, a spokesperson for Hammerson did confirm that none of the group’s Irish investments are being sold.

They said the discussions solely relate to the company’s UK-based retail parks and won’t affect the Ireland operations. 

Hammerson classes the Kildare Village site — in which it owns a significant minority stake — as a premium outlet, not a retail park. 

The rest of its Irish operations are classed as shopping centres.

Hammerson co-owns the Dundrum Town Centre shopping complex in south Dublin and owns half of the Pavilions centre in Swords, in north County Dublin. 

It also owns a controlling stake in the Ilac Centre in central Dublin and has significant development plans for Dublin city centre.

It did make one Irish disposal, earlier this year, with the completion of the sale of the Abbey Retail Park in Belfast. Hammerson has raised £73m (€84.2m) in gross proceeds from asset disposals since the start of this year.

Hammerson recently posted a £1.7bn (€1.96bn) loss for 2020 on the back of massive Covid-induced write-downs on the valuations of its properties across the UK, France and Ireland. 

It also issued a longer-term debt warning, as the coronavirus crisis knocked the value of its malls.

The group took a secondary share listing in Dublin in December, mentioning its Irish development plans in its stock exchange announcement.