Nick Bit: Simon has bought over 50 loser retailers….. All that is going for them is they can borrow themselves broke. Many chains they have bought were broke before COVID. And to make matters worse we have learned how to shop online……..
The American Dream mall is keeping up its reputation as an American nightmare. The owner of the 3.1 million-square-foot East Rutherford, N.J., mega-mall, Triple Five Group, could lose nearly half of its stakes in its Mall of America in Minnesota and West Edmonton Mall in Canada to its lenders because of American Dream’s struggles, Axios first reported. A spokesperson for Triple Five did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Triple Five could lose a 49 percent interest in the malls, because it used them as collateral for a $1.2 billion construction loan to build the long-delayed American Dream mall, which has faced cash problems due to the coronavirus pandemic. The $5 billion New Jersey mall — which includes retail, an indoor amusement park and water park, and a 16-story indoor ski slope — finally opened in 2019 after nearly two decades of construction and three developers, but COVID-19 threw yet another wrench into the project. Triple Five, owned by the Ghermezian family, was forced to close on March 16 as stay-at-home measures were put in place around New Jersey. It finally reopened in October but has faced cash flow problems, forcing it to miss payments. Kurt Hagen, an executive at Triple Five, told Bloomington, Minn., officials that Triple Five was “likely” to lose the stakes in the Mall of America and West Edmonton Mall, Bloomberg reported. “It would have been much better if American Dream would have burned down or a hurricane had hit it, financially, because we would have been covered by insurance,” Hagen said, according to Bloomberg. “This pandemic that we didn’t see coming has not been covered and was the worst scenario imaginable
Reuters) – Mall operator Hammerson posted a 1.7 billion pound ($2.37 billion) loss for 2020 and gave a formal warning about threats to its ability to continue as a going concern, as the value of properties sank in the COVID-19 crisis and it launched asset sales to bolster its finances. Shares in the company gained in initial deals after it said it had made 73 million pounds from the sale of the Brent South Shopping Park and its stakes in two French joint ventures. It also reported an almost halving of net rental revenue and said it had so far collected 76% of last year’s rents as the crisis battered its retail tenants. Hammerson said it would meet its liabilities at least for the next 12 months, but flagged that the impact of the virus on the retail sector and broader economy could cast significant doubt on its ability to carry on as a business. “More adverse outcomes relative to those assumed in the scenario modelling, could result in breaches in the Group’s unsecured gearing and interest cover ratio covenants,” the company said. British shopping centres are set to be fully operational only by mid May as per the phased exit plan from the latest round of restrictions which have kept shoppers at home and led to widespread rent deferrals by retailers. Hammerson’s total portfolio, including premium outlets, fell 24% in value to 6.34 billion pounds during 2020. “The portfolio is still in lockdown, tenant activity is on pause and we need to wait for the reopening to see how the rent roll performs through summer and into year end,” JP Morgan analysts wrote in a note. “2021 (is) all about disposals: Disposals will be necessary to lower its LTV of 46%.” The FTSE 250-listed company, which runs shopping malls such as the Bullring in Birmingham and Italie Deux in Paris, said the results represented its largest ever fall in net rental income and UK asset values. Adjusted profit sank to 36.5 million pounds for the full-year ended Dec. 31, compared with 214 million pounds a year earlier.