C&R ousts Barber

Published: 02 April, 2008

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Capital & Regional chief executive Martin Barber has stepped down from the company he co-founded 30 years ago. Amid rumours of a boardroom rift after the share price slumped 70 per cent in just under a year, the company has brought in Hugh Scott-Barrett as Barber's replacement.

Scott-Barrett was a member of the management board of ABN AMRO from 2000 to 2007, most recently as chief financial officer.

Capital & Regional is the highest-profile victim of the credit crunch so far. The value of units in its Mall shopping centre fund fell 17 per cent during 2007, and have lost another 4.5 per cent since then. And the Junction retail park fund fared even worse, with a 34.3 per cent collapse in the unit price last year.

The company's use of gearing has the effect of magnifying performance, both on the upside when times are good but also on the downside. Although it denies that the downturn in values has pushed it close to breaching a loan-to-value clause on the Mall fund, Capital & Regional has begun asset disposals, selling an 80 per cent stake in its trade counter portfolio earlier this year.

And shares in Liberty International, owner of Capital Shopping Centres, soared 6.63 per cent back over the £10 barrier amid press reports that the company is in merger talks with Westfield to create the world's largest shopping centre group.

Any merger would create a dominant player in the UK market. CSC currently owns 13 completed centres, including eight of the UK's top 21, with a total floorspace of 12.6 million sq ft. And Westfield's UK holdings amount to 3.5 million sq ft across seven centres.

A merged company would also have a big stake in the UK development market. Westfield will open its million-sq ft Westfield London project later this year. Construction is also about to commence on the 14 million-sq ft mixed-use Stratford City development adjacent to the site of the 2012 Olympics in East London. Other future development projects include Bradford, Guildford, Nottingham, and Lisburn, Northern Ireland.

And as well as extending its Eldon Square site in Newcastle, Capital Shopping centres has a 50 per cent stake in the million-sq ft St Davids 2 project in Cardiff, due to open next year. It also has consent to double the size of the Westgate centre in Oxford.

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