* Appoints KPMG as contingency for administration
* In talks with creditors over debt standstill
* Debt waiver expires on Friday
(Recasts, adds shares, background)
By Yadarisa Shabong
June 23 (Reuters) - Intu Properties warned it may
have to close some of Britain's best known shopping centres on
Tuesday as it lined up KPMG as administrator in case it cannot
reach a debt standstill deal with its creditors by a Friday
deadline.
The owner of Manchester's Trafford Centre, Lakeside in Essex
and other properties in Britain and Spain, with net debt of 4.69
billion pounds ($5.68 billion) and losses of more than 2 billion
pounds in 2019, said it had lined up KPMG as a "contingency".
Intu raised doubts about its future without new funding in
March, even before the coronavirus lockdown.
It said on Tuesday that talks with its creditors on a debt
standstill were continuing as the expiry of a debt waiver looms.
These talks began in May and Intu said the main sticking
points were the duration of a standstill, how much creditors
would share in any future recovery and funding.
Sky News reported this month that KPMG was seeking 12
million pounds in funding to keep some of Intu's best-known
malls open.
Retailers were shut for nearly three months by the British
government-imposed coronavirus lockdown, with some forced into
administration, while others slashed costs and staffing and
struggled to keep up their rent payments.
Intu's shares, which have collapsed in value this year, were
down 2.3% at 0813 GMT, valuing the company at around 60 million
pounds, from a 2006 peak of nearly 13 billion pounds.
Two years ago, rival mall operator Hammerson
offered 3.4 billion pounds to buy Intu, which houses hundred of
retailers and whose centres get millions of visitors a year.
Consultancy CBRE said a fall in the value of retail
properties has seen prime British shopping centre yields rise to
6.5% from 4.5% in 2016 and prime high street yields reach 5.75%,
from 4% in 2018.
(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Patrick
Graham and Alexander Smith)
Hammerson (HMSO)