Scentre Group, owner of Westfield Centres, provide an update on its 1st Quarter activities revealing a more improved rent collection and retailer sales performance than in previous months.
SCentre advised that all 42 Westfield Centres are open and trading with 92% of retailer stores now trading (including Victoria), with more stores in Victoria to reopen over the coming weeks.
During the 10 months ended 31 October 2020, the Group collected $1,621 million of rent (77% of billings) with $187 million and $203 million of gross rental billings in the months of September and October respectively. The October rental collections reflect 96% of billings, a marked improvement on September and compared to the depth of COVID impacts of April, when just 28% of income was collected.
The Group has reached agreement regarding COVID arrangements with a total of 3,187 retailers, representing 89% of the 3,600 retail brands across our portfolio. This includes agreements with 2,299 SME retailers under the Commercial Tenancies Code of Conduct.
Customer visits during the September 2020 quarter were 90% of the same time last year across the portfolio (excluding Victoria).
Comparable like-for-like specialty in-store sales (excluding Victoria) were down 1.9% for the quarter to September 2020, while comparable majors in-store sales were up 1.0% for the quarter to September 2020.
So for in 2020, the Group has completed 1,395 lease deals (renewals and new leases), representing approximately 167,000 square metres of gross lettable area. Portfolio occupancy was 98.4% at the end of September 2020.
In September, the Group issued $4.1 billion of subordinated hybrid notes, further diversifying the Group’s sources of capital and strengthening the Group’s credit metrics.
In September, the Group also announced the intention, subject to unforeseen circumstances, to pay a distribution in early 2021 from surplus net operating cash flows received during the 2020 year.
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