Peel commits £50m to Intu shares
THE Peel Group has agreed to commit £50m to a share placing by Intu Properties to fund the acquisition of a shopping centre in Milton Keynes.
Manchester-based Peel, which holds a 20% stake in Intu – formerly Capital Shopping Centres – is buying around 14.5 million shares at 342.9p. The other shares are going to insitutional investors.
Intu, which owns the Trafford Centre and half of the Arndale in Manchester, is buying Midsummer Place Shopping Centre for £250.5m.
The group also unveiled figures for the year to the end of December. Revenue was up 2% to £525m while pre-tax profits jumped from £33.6m to £158.6m.
At an underlying level, excluding valuation and exceptional items, earnings were marginally lower at £138m compared to £139m in 2011. Net rental income dipped by £1m, or 0.3%, to £363m.
At the year end, net asset value per share was up 0.2% to 392p and the value of the group’s investment properties rose 1.5% to £7.07bn.
Intu’s chief executive David Fischel said: “2012 has been a year of considerable progress, with the quality of our assets and teams demonstrated by the out-performance of national benchmarks against a challenging economic background.
“We start 2013 with robust operating indicators and considerable momentum across the business from a range of attractive investment opportunities.”
