Coronavirus: Bullring-owner to name property veteran as chair | Business News

One of Britain’s biggest shopping centre-owners is to replace its chairman with a property industry veteran as it scrambles to reinvent its business for a post-coronavirus retail environment.

Sky News has learnt that Hammerson, which owns Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre and Brent Cross in London, will say this week that David Tyler is to step down as its chairman.

He is expected to be replaced by Rob Noel, the former chief executive of Land Securities Group.

Sources said the development could be announced as soon as Monday morning – the same day that many of Hammerson’s UK shopping centres are due to reopen after three months in lockdown.

The boardroom change will come less than three weeks after Hammerson announced that David Atkins, its long-serving chief executive, would leave no later than next spring.

City insiders said this weekend that Mr Noel’s appointment could now mean that Mr Atkins leaves the company significantly earlier.

The decision of Hammerson’s board to replace Mr Tyler, the former chairman of J Sainsbury, so soon after announcing the retirement of its chief executive, underlines the sense of urgency among its directors and shareholders about the need for radical change at the company.

Hammerson has been under pressure to accelerate the pace of change since Elliott Advisers, the prominent activist investor, became a shareholder in the company in 2018, although it is unclear how much of that stake it retains.

The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated an existential challenge for companies both in, and exposed to, the retail sector.

Like other landlords, Hammerson will be lucky to see more than a quarter of the rent it is owned next week flow into its coffers, with even some retailers which can afford to pay their bills choosing not to do so.

A voluntary code of conduct between property-owners and retail tenants, drawn up by the government, has been criticised by stakeholders on both sides.

Hammerson has seen its shares slide since well before the coronavirus outbreak began, largely as a result of the escalating crisis facing Britain’s retail industry.

The company owns a stake in the Bicester Village destination shopping development, as well as assets in Bristol, Croydon and Middlesbrough.

A source close to Land Securities, which is shifting its vast property portfolio away from retail and leisure assets to focus on office developments, said it was discussing with Hammerson when Mr Noel might be allowed to join Hammerson’s board.

Under Mr Noel’s leaving arrangements, he stepped down from Land Securities’ board in March but is “available” to its board until July 10.

He was replaced by Mark Allen.

Land Securities, which owns stakes in retail sites such as Bluewater in Kent, and British Land are among the major property-owners which have been forced to write billions of pounds off their shopping centre-related assets in recent months.

Intu Properties, which Hammerson came close to merging with in 2018, is battling to survive the COVID-19 pandemic, but could collapse into administration as soon as this week if its lenders refuse a ‘standstill’ agreement.

Institutional shareholders in Hammerson have been privately advocating boardroom changes for some time.

Both Mr Tyler, who has been chairman for seven years, and Mr Atkins, who has run Hammerson since 2009, have faced pressure to shake up the company as the high street’s turmoil has escalated.

The company suffered a blow last month when Orion European Real Estate pulled out of a deal to buy seven retail parks from it for £400m.

Hammerson also owns centres in France, Ireland and Portugal.

When the company rejected a cash-and-paper offer from Klepierre, a French company, worth 635p-a-share in 2018, Mr Tyler and his colleagues argued that it significantly undervalued it.

At around the same time, Hammerson – shares in which closed on Friday at just 110.7p – abandoned a planned merger with rival Intu.

It now has a market value of just £848m, having been a member of the FTSE-100 index as recently as February 2018.
Hammerson and Land Securities declined to comment on Sunday.