Liberty Two Degrees says it will survive if Edcon fails
The part-owner of some of SA’s largest shopping centres says it will be able to find new tenants
Liberty Two Degrees (L2D), part-owner of Sandton City, Melrose Arch and Eastgate, says it will survive if the turnaround plan for national retailer Edcon fails. CEO Amelia Beattie said on Monday at the release of financial results for the year to December that while L2D hoped Edcon would manage to overcome its funding problems and return to profitability, L2D could survive without it as a tenant. “While we want Edcon to continue to trade in SA, employing South Africans and serving SA customers, our malls have survived things like this before. Most recently, Stuttafords closed down but our malls continued to meet or better our expectations,” he said. Beattie said 5.3% of the total gross lettable area of L2D’s property portfolio was let to Edcon. This would fall by nearly a fifth to 4.3% as Edcon had pinpointed certain stores that it intended to decrease in size or close. This meant that 27,726m² of L2D’s 523,135m² of retail space was exposed to Edcon, which would fall to about 22,49...
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