Hammerson buys French mall for EUR 65m

Hammerson has agreed to acquire a 31% stake in Grand Maine, a 22,000 m² shopping centre in Angers, France for £44 mln (EUR 66 mln). The vendor is private property company Locasic. The transaction is expected to be completed by next October.

The property consists of a 9,000 m² shopping gallery and an 800 m² adjacent plot of land. The scheme is anchored by a 10,800 m² hypermarket owned by Carrefour, which has a 60% interest in the co-ownership. The balance is held by occupiers of the office element of the complex.

Built in 1983, the centre is located in the Lac de Maine area on the edge of Angers city centre. Around 315,000 people live within a 20-minute drive of the centre. The 62 units in the shopping gallery generate a net rental income of £1.9 mln (EUR 2.8 mln), and about 24% of the scheme is open to renegotiations with tenants, Hammerson said. Tenants include retailers such as Celio, Promod, Camaïeu and Intersport.

Hammerson is the only British company to enjoy tax breaks under the French SIIC status, the equivalent of real estate investment trusts.

The company's net rental income rose by 26% year-on-year from £109.3 mln in the first half of 2006 to £138.3 mln in the same period this year, Hammerson said in its first half year results issued on Tuesday. It reported a 9% rise in first-half adjusted Net Asset Value per share. Adjusted pre-tax profit rose 22.3% from £44.8 mln in June 2006 to £54.8 mln in the first six months of the year.

Chairman John Nelson, said: 'Against a background of greater uncertainty in financial markets, we are maintaining our strategy of creating value through asset management, development activity and capital recycling in key property markets in the UK and France. I have great confidence in Hammerson's future.'