PROPERTY developer Hammerson has announced it will dispose of its office portfolio and instead focus on a retail strategy.
The company, which published its year end results for 2011 on Friday, said it would look to sell off its office properties in the medium term and concentrate on its retail portfolio which includes shopping centres such as Brent Cross in North London and the Bullring in Birmingham.
Hammerson owns several office developments in the City which it will be now looking for buyers for. These include 99 Bishopsgate, 1 Leadenhall C ourt, 125 Old Broad Street and 10 Gresham Street.
David Atkins, Chief Executive of Hammerson, said:
“Following the review of our strategy we will focus on being the best owner-manager and developer of retail property within Europe. Hammerson has created a retail business delivering outperformance from prime assets in winning locations. We now intend to sell our standing office investments over the medium term to maximise returns, redeploying capital into the retail sector to exploit our expertise and build on our existing scale. This will create efficiencies that lead to further cost savings and income growth from our portfolio.”