Intu's occupancy rates unchanged at 95% in Sep qtr

UK-based Intu Properties’ (ITU) occupancy rates for the quarter ended September 2013 remained unchanged at 95% by rent‚ including 1% of rent currently being traded by administrators.

Intu Properties‚ formerly Capital Shopping Centres‚ said when it released its interim management statement on Tuesday that there had been no significant tenant failures in the quarter.

The group said it signed 57 long-term leases in the quarter - in aggregate GBP11m of annual rent and 8% above previous passing rent (like-for-like units). This brought the total for the year to date to 152 leases‚ producing GBP33m of new annual rent‚ 4% above previous passing rent.

Five significant transactions were signed in the period to introduce flagship retailers with a view to improving the rental tone over the medium term. Excluding these strategic transactions‚ in aggregate new long-term leases were in line with valuation assumptions‚ it said.

CE David Fischel said: “We are encouraged by the positive impact of the launch of Intu and our investment in infrastructure and teams. The national scale of our operations is now apparent to retailers‚ national media partners and local authorities.”

The group said wide-ranging change in the company continued in the third quarter as it rolled out its new brand and progressed its active asset management and development pipeline.

Fischel said the group continued to drive its GBP1bn development programme. In July it raised about GBP170m of new financing facilities to help fund the expenditure.

The UK retail environment had continued its gradual recovery‚ with statistics showing a 15-month unbroken trend of increasing like-for-like nonfood retail sales‚ said Intu.

It said 48 new shops had opened in its centres since June and 125 so far this year‚ which represented about 5% of its 2‚600 units. Thirty stores were currently undergoing shop fitting.

The 2% reduction in footfall it experienced this year was unchanged from June.

The group was encouraged by the continuing signs of improvement in the UK consumer environment. “We are confident that the income foregone in the short term by our approach of holding units vacant or on flexible terms to enable a timely start on a number of projects within our GBP1bn development programme will be more than offset by the significant enhancement to the long-term total return of the business from these projects.”

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