Shopping centre owner intu has entered administration, after failing to secure an agreement with its creditors.  

intu, which owns 17 shopping centres in the UK, as well as a shopping centre and development site in Spain, has been struggling for some time and its difficulties have been compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.   

Last week, intu issued an update ahead of the revolving credit facility covenant waiver expiry at 23:59 on 26 June 2020. The company said that it was continuing discussions with the intu Group’s creditors in relation to the terms of standstill-based agreements. The company has since issued a further announcement, advising that sufficient alignment and agreement on such terms has not been achieved. 

To protect the interests of its stakeholders, intu has appointed James Robert Tucker, Michael Robert Pink and David John Pike of KPMG as joint administrators to intu and several other key central entities in the intu Group. The London Stock Exchange has also suspended the listing and trading of intu’s ordinary shares.  

However, intu has said that its shopping centres, which are held in separate operating companies, will continue to trade. The company’s statement said that the intu Group’s relationships with its tenants are with these operating companies, not the companies entering administration. 

The shopping centre operating companies have or are expected to enter into transitional services agreements with the administrators of the central entities to ensure continuity of service provision by the central entities to the individual shopping centres.