Property giant Liberty International has recorded losses of £458 million for the first half of this year, citing falling income as a result of retailers going bust as one of the key causes.

The value of Liberty International’s property portfolio dropped 7.4 per cent, equating to a loss of£639 million. Last year, it recorded a profit of£553 million.

Liberty International lost£10 million in the half year to June 30, because 62 of its retail tenants went into administration during that time, causing a like-for-like fall in income from shopping centres of 2.6 per cent, compared with the same period last year.

At the beginning of the year, Liberty had to make a provision of£4.5 million to cover expected losses caused by retailers going into administration.

The landlord has suffered losses in value for every shopping centre in its portfolio, which includes Covent Garden, the MetroCentre in Gateshead, the Victoria centre in Nottingham and the Arndale centre in Manchester.

At the beginning of trading today (August 7), Liberty International suffered the second largest fall in share value on the FTSE 100 with more than a 4 per cent drop as shareholders reacted to the poor results, which were worse than analysts forecasted.

The gloomy picture from Liberty International – the UK’s largest shopping centre owner – is likely to precede further poor results from retail property owners.

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