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Shopping centre owner Intu reported wider losses as revenue was hurt by lower revenue on lower rental income after retailers continued to buckle under tough trading conditions on the High Street.
For 2019, pre-tax losses widened to £2.0bn from £1.17bn as revenue slipped to £248.1m from £298.5m.
Like-for-like net rental income fell 9.1% to £348.1m driven by impact of administrations and company voluntary arrangements amid a challenging backdrop for retailers.
'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 multichannel 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,' the company said.
'Looking in to 2020, we would expect like-for-like net rental income to be down, but by a lower amount than 2019. The Covid-19 situation is rapidly evolving and we are closely monitoring the impact on our centres. Our footfall is broadly unchanged for the first 10 weeks of 2020,' Intu said. 'For UK valuations, we would expect some further downward pressure in 2020 In the short term, fixing the balance sheet is our top priority.'
At 10:08am: (LON:INTU) Intu Properties share price was -0.85p at 4.85p