Intu seeks standstill with lenders

Intu is seeking standstill agreements with lenders until December 2021, stating this is its “best course of action” to fight its way through the impact of coronavirus. The shopping centre landlord announced it wants to seek relief from financial covenant testing, debt amortisation and facility maturity payments up until the end of 2021. Intu said: “The standstill provisions would also aim to achieve self-funded operational and financial costs only across the different property owning sub-structures, without recourse to intu properties plc for any shortfalls during the standstill period, with interest being ‘pay if you can’.” When “market dislocation has passed”, intu said there would be a “greater opportunity to explore alternative capital structures and solutions and disposals” to ultimately fix its balance sheet. Intu has furloughed 60% of its shopping centre staff and 20% of staff at its head office as a result of coronavirus disruption. Board members have also taken a 20% pay cut for the next three months. Earlier this month, the company brought in ex-PwC and EY heavyweight David Hargrave as chief restructuring officer and non-executive director to help fix the balance sheet.   To send feedback, e-mail lucy.alderson@egi.co.uk or tweet @LucyAJourno or @estatesgazette