Klepierre, Europe’s second-largest retail property owner after Amsterdam-listed Unibail, reported last year net income of 846.2 million euros ($1 billion). And that’s down markedly from 1.13 billion euros a year earlier ($1.36 billion).
The losses involved restaurants, movie theaters, travel agencies, and a few bankrupt tenants. Klepierre is the main landlord for some of Europe’s biggest retailers, including Inditex, H&M, and Sephora.
In France, Klepierre’s largest market, retail sales fell 6 percent in 2020, after two lockdowns. It was eventually decided to refrain from the third, but major malls were suspended, causing the operator to have 88% of its space idle. The company also had some problems due to restrictions in Italy, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Spain, and Norway.
The company assumes that next year will be more successful than 2020 (assuming that they do not introduce a recent lockdown, which may occur in March). However, it will not reach the figures for 2019.
Carmila, France’s second-largest mall operator, reported a 19% drop in net rental income in the first quarter of 2020.
