Retail firm intu has posted strong figures in its half year report, with increasing rental income and occupancy as well as increasing footfall across all of its shopping centres in the UK and Spain.
The company, regarded as the UK‘s leading owner and developer of regional shopping centres, saw like-for-like rental income rise 7.5 per cent to $17 million – bolstered by the 82 long term leases it signed in the UK and 16 in Spain.
Occupancy also increased in that period, from 95.1 per cent to 96.1 per cent year-on-year.
Meanwhile, footfall across all of its shopping centres grew 1.3 per cent compared to the 1.7 per cent average national fall, according to Experian.
The figures only cover one week of trading after the EU referendum, and intu directors have said it was too soon to ascertain its economic consequences.
“We are pleased to report a strong set of results for the first six months of 2016 with a 10 per cent increase in underlying earnings per share driven by excellent growth in net rental income of 7.5 per cent on a like-for-like basis,” intu chief executive David Fischel said.
“We have therefore raised our guidance for full year like-for-like net rental income growth to three to four per cent.
“Our established retailers, such as Zara and Next, have been upsizing space and we have welcomed new lifestyle brands and international retailers at a time when the supply of quality retail space is limited.
“We continue to focus on strengthening and improving our prime regional shopping centres, introducing new leisure concepts and increasing the dwell time of our 400 million customer visits per year.
“With over £500 million of cash and available facilities, we are well positioned to take opportunities when they arise.”
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