Westfield-Owner Unibail To Sell Most Of Its US Properties

Words by Retail Bum

Westfield To Sell Most Of Its U.S. Properties
Westfield To Sell Most Of Its U.S. Properties

In an effort to tackle its long-term debt problem, London’s Westfield shopping center’s owner has revealed its plans to massively scale back its presence in the U.S. and complete a remaining $3.9 billion European asset disposal before the end of 2022.

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s (URW) new management team is looking to sell real estate to recover from the financial turmoil brought on by coronavirus lockdowns.

“At the end of the day, the exposure to the US will be minimal, if not zero,” said Jean-Marie Tritant, the group’s new chief executive.

Tritant previously ran URW’s U.S. business but took on the role as chief in January after a group of investors won shareholder support for putting a greater focus on the European market, according to Reuters.

As of 2019, the U.S. represented 28 percent of the group’s net rental income from shopping centers — making it the second-biggest contributor after France.

And while the goal is to reduce its presence in the U.S., Tritant said that Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is “100 percent committed” to keeping its two London Westfield locations, two of the company’s most valuable assets in Europe as well as on a global level.

Unibail’s effort to sell off its prime assets while also taking out additional long-term debt will help it reduce the size of its current gross financial debt of €26.4 billion.

As COVID-19 restrictions remain active across almost all of the markets, Tritant indicated that the company has sought to adjust its 2021 expectations and admitted that it was encouraging to see the recovery of footfall and sales when restrictions were eased up last year.

URW’s recurring net profit plummeted by 40 percent to €1.06 billion in 2020. Since then, the company has opted not to provide earnings guidance. Additionally, the group has suspended its dividend payments for 2020, 2021 and 2022.

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