Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield posts 14.5% profit rise after Westfield acquisition

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has reported a 14.5% jump in H1 profits boosted by its recently acquired Westfield shopping centres.

Europe’s largest property firm finalised the acquisition of Australian shopping mall giant Westfield in early June which includes both Westfield London and Westfield Stratford in the UK.

The firm said profits in the first half of the year rose 14.5% to £631m and recurring earnings per share rose 7.3% to 6.61 euros (£5.94). It also announced that footfall in the UK was up 3.7% in H1-2018, driven by the opening of the extension of Westfield London.

Christophe Cuvillier, group CEO, said: “June 7, 2018 marked the creation of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, the premier global developer and operator of flagship shopping destinations. Now, the hard work is underway to successfully integrate the new group. In addition to the momentous amount of work done to close the acquisition of Westfield in record time, we delivered excellent recurring earnings per share growth of +7.3% in H1-2018.

“I would like to warmly thank the Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield teams for this extraordinary achievement. Growth was driven by a strong like-for-like retail NRI(1) increase of +4.3%, an outstanding performance by our offices division, the deliveries in 2017, as well as the contribution from our US and UK assets during June.”

He added: “Our focus remains on continuous improvement in our portfolio through disciplined asset management, our rotation strategy, and the build-out of the development pipeline. The skills of the Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield team and our best in breed assets are well positioned to deliver value for our shareholders.”