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Intu Properties plc was a British
real estate investment trust A real estate investment trust (REIT) is a company that owns, and in most cases operates, income-producing real estate. REITs own many types of commercial real estate, including office and apartment buildings, warehouses, hospitals, shopping cente ...
(REIT), largely focused on shopping centre management and development. Originally named Liberty International plc, it changed its name in May 2010 to Capital Shopping Centres Group plc after demerging its
Capital & Counties Properties Capital & Counties Properties plc (Capco) is a United Kingdom-based property investment and development company focused on sites in the West End of London. It is listed on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges and is a constituent of the ...
business unit to form an independent business. The company adopted the Intu name on 18 February 2013, and this was followed by the rebranding of most of its shopping centres under the Intu title from May 2013. The company's shares were listed on the
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
stock exchanges until it entered
administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...
in June 2020. The company owned or part-owned 17 shopping centres in the UK and one in Spain prior to entering administration.


History

The company was established by Sir Donald Gordon in 1980 under the name Transatlantic Insurance Holdings plc as an offshoot of Liberty Life Association of Africa, a business he had founded in 1957. The company developed into a leading investor in life assurance businesses in the 1980s and divested its remaining life assurance interests (a 29% holding in
Sun Life Sun Life Financial Inc. is a Canadian financial services company. It is primarily known as a life insurance company. Sun Life has a presence in investment management with over CAD$1.3 trillion in assets under management operating in a number ...
) in 1991. In 1992 it merged with Capital & Counties, a leading
shopping centre A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...
developer, so securing itself a listing on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
. It changed its name to Liberty International in 1996 and, after demerging
Capital & Counties Properties Capital & Counties Properties plc (Capco) is a United Kingdom-based property investment and development company focused on sites in the West End of London. It is listed on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges and is a constituent of the ...
in May 2010, renamed itself Capital Shopping Centres Group (CSC). The company also disposed of a significant holding in its
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
n subsidiary Capital and Counties USA, which was acquired by Equity One in May 2010. Equity One was later acquired by
Regency Centers Corporation Regency Centers Corporation is a real estate investment trust based in Jacksonville, Florida and is one of the largest operators of shopping centers with grocery stores as anchor tenants. As of October 21, 2020, the company owned 415 properties c ...
. In 2011, CSC purchased the
Trafford Centre The Trafford Centre is a large indoor shopping centre and entertainment complex in Greater Manchester, England. It opened in 1998 and is third largest in the United Kingdom by retail space. Originally developed by the Peel Group, the Trafford C ...
from
The Peel Group The Peel Group is a British infrastructure and property investment business, based in Manchester. In 2022, its Peel Land and Property estate extends to of buildings, and over of land and water. Peel retains minority stakes in its former ports ...
and offered a 20% stake in CSC to Peel chairman John Whittaker. The 20% stake in CSC was worth approximately £700m at the time, valuing the Trafford Centre at approximately £1.65 billion. Whittaker continued to purchase shares after the takeover and became the largest shareholder in 2012, with a stake of 24.63%. CSC purchased the
Westfield Group Westfield Group was an Australian shopping centre company that existed from 1960 to 2014, when it split into two independent companies: Scentre Group, which owns and operates the Australian and New Zealand Westfield shopping centre portfolio; ...
's 75% stake in Westfield Broadmarsh in
Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...
in November 2011.


Rebrand as Intu

In January 2013, CSC announced its rebranding as Intu and the renaming of twelve of its shopping centres to incorporate the new consumer-facing brand. A new orange and black brand identity was introduced at the same time, including a bird logo said to represent a "symbol of joy". At the same time and in response to changing consumer behaviour, Intu launched the UK's first online shopping centre and insourced all shopping centre staff, previously employed by facilities management company
Bilfinger Bilfinger SE (previously named Bilfinger Berger AG) is a German company specialized in civil and industrial construction, engineering and services based in Mannheim, Germany. History Bilfinger dates back to 1880 when August Bernatz founded Be ...
Europa.


2013 to 2019

The company announced on 27 February 2013 that it had agreed to purchase Midsummer Place in
Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...
(now Intu Milton Keynes) from
Legal & General Legal & General Group plc, commonly known as Legal & General, is a British multinational financial services and asset management company headquartered in London, England. Its products and services include investment management, lifetime mortg ...
for £250.5 million. The sale was completed by the end of March 2013. In March 2014, Intu announced that it had purchased the
Merry Hill Shopping Centre Merry Hill (formerly Westfield Merry Hill and The Merry Hill Shopping Centre) is a large shopping complex in Brierley Hill near Dudley, England. It was developed between 1985 and 1990, with several subsequent expansion and renovation projects ...
and Westfield Derby for a £867.8m property deal that saw Intu take complete ownership of Westfield's Derby shopping centre and Sprucefield Park in Northern Ireland. In December 2017, the company agreed to a takeover by property development company
Hammerson Hammerson plc is a major British property development and investment company. The firm switched to real estate investment trust (REIT) status when they were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. It is listed on the London Stock Excha ...
for £3.4 billion, subject to shareholder approval. In April 2018, Hammerson recommended that its shareholders reject the proposed takeover. With Intu hit by declining footfall on the high street and failures among major retailers, Peel Group,
Olayan Group The Olayan Group is a multinational enterprise established in 1947 by Suliman S. Olayan (5 November 1918 - 4 July 2002), with an actively managed portfolio of global investments. The group's primary parent company, Olayan Investments Company Es ...
, and Brookfield Property launched a £2.8bn takeover bid in October, but, after due diligence procedures, they withdrew the offer in November 2018. In November 2019, Intu said it was in talks to sell three Spanish shopping centres: Puerto Venecia in
Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...
, intu Asturias in
Oviedo Oviedo (; ast, Uviéu ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city. Oviedo is located ap ...
, and intu Xanadu in
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
. In December 2019, it sold its share in the Zaragoza asset for €237.7 million, delivering net proceeds of around €115m. The following month it sold its Oviedo asset, raising around €85 million.


2020 demise

In March 2020, Intu abandoned a £1.3 billion emergency cash call as not enough investors were willing to support the call. The company had £4.5 billion of debt. The company subsequently warned that it could collapse if unable to raise further funds, after reporting a loss of £2bn for 2019. Intu shares had lost almost 90% of their value in a year, and the results announcement prompted a 25% drop to just over 4p. On 26 March, as the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
prompted more retailers to delay rent payments to Intu, the company warned that it would need some waivers from its lenders and was likely to breach its debt covenants in July; its shares fell 11% to 3.6p in the first hour of trading following the warning. On 23 June 2020, the company warned that shopping centres might close if financial restructuring talks with lenders failed, and lined up KPMG as administrators as a "contingency". On 26 June, Intu went into
administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...
. Intu SGS, a subsidiary of Intu and holding company for Intu Watford, Braehead, Victoria Centre and Lakeside, received funding in August 2020 to take full control of the four centres. The transfer from Intu to Intu SGS was expected to take place by the end of 2020, and to involve Global Mutual becoming asset manager of the centres and
Savills Savills plc is a British real estate services company based in London. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The business was established by Alfred Savill (1829–1905) in 1855 in London. ...
serving as property manager. In September 2020, the transfers of Intu Derby, Merry Hill, and Milton Keynes to new owners were confirmed. Intu announced that Chapelfield would also be transferred to new owners, although these were not identified.


Properties

As of 31 December 2019 the company's investment properties were valued at £5.9 billion, when Intu owned or part-owned 17 shopping centres in the UK:


References


External links

* Official website {{Authority control 2020 disestablishments in England British companies disestablished in 2020 Companies based in London Companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Companies that have entered administration in the United Kingdom Real estate investment trusts of the United Kingdom Financial services companies established in 1980 Shopping centres in the United Kingdom Shopping center management firms