Intu SGS - comment

Footfall is steadily returning to pre-covid levels, with monthly footfall in April at c.98% of April 2019 with YTD at 92%. Note the Company is now only reporting versus the prior year. Rent collections (on a lower rent roll level) continue to be in line with or slightly exceeding expectations.

Tenant sales in April were 8% higher than the prior year, not adjusted for inflation, driven primarily by leisure, food and beverage and non-fashion retailers. F&B, fast food and ‘on the move’ outlets continued to outperform more traditional restaurants. Within non-fashion, the strongest performing categories were health and beauty, entertainment and technology. Fashion retailers performed less well during April, with sales marginally down year-on-year.

SGS has also commented on the overall shopping centre market. Transaction volumes for shopping centres totalled just £235m in Q1 2023, showing that the decline in investor sentiment following the mini budget in September 2023 is yet to materially improve. Furthermore, the few acquisitions in Q1 2023 were conducted by opportunistic investors and several high-profile disposal processes were withdrawn from the market.