After long-running talks with creditors failed last night, Intu has finally slipped into administration but confirmed its shopping centres would continue to trade for the time being.
The UK’s biggest shopping centre group confirmed it had formally applied to appoint KPMG as administrators and that the Financial Conduct Authority had suspended its share listings following a failure to agree a standstill on debt repayments with its lenders overnight.
Intu said earlier in the week as talks were ongoing that its falling into administration might lead to some of its centres closing, but in its announcement to the City the landlord said the “underlying group operating companies remain unaffected” and that all 14 sites would continue trading.
The announcement brings to the end a long-running saga that has seen the embattled landlord group stumble from one crisis to the next.
Stung by numerous retail company voluntary arrangements and administrations over the past few years, Intu was subsequently blindsided by the closure of its centres due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In May, Intu applied to lenders for a standstill on certain debts, the covenants on which it was in danger of breaching due to lost revenues from stores not trading.
To compound the landlord’s woes, it suffered a historically poor quarterly rent day earlier this week. Across the retail property industry, landlords collected less than 15% of all rent due – half as bad again as March rent day, where less than 40% of what was owed was paid.
Discussions about its debts with lenders “have been ongoing” Intu said, however “insufficient alignment and agreement in relation to the terms of such standstill-based agreements has been achieved” ahead of today’s deadline.
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