SHOPPING CENTRES
No Hammerson payout as it tries to leave UK
The owner of malls in the UK, Ireland and France says its dividend payouts won't grow in 2019 or in 2020
UK and Europe shopping centre owner Hammerson’s dividend will not grow over the next two years while the company, the fourth-largest property group on the JSE, sells more than R9bn worth of of its weaker UK and Irish assets. The group has been trying to invest outside of the UK while the retail market there undergoes a restructuring and while uncertainty around the Brexit process continues, according to CEO David Atkins, who was speaking on the sidelines of the release of financial results for the year to December 2018. Hammerson, which has market capitalisation of R51.6bn, declared a final dividend of 14.8p per share for the reporting period, 1.6% higher than the dividend declared for the year to December 2017. Atkins said dividend growth would be flat in 2019 and 2020 as Hammerson continued to operate in a depressed UK retail environment. About 52% of Hammerson’s portfolio by value is in the UK and many of its shopping centres in that region were its worst performers last year. UK...
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