Q&A: Matthew Roberts, incoming chief executive, intu

Matthew Roberts, chief financial officer of intu, is taking the mantle from David Fischel as the shopping centre landlord’s new chief executive at the end of April. Having joined intu as its financial boss in 2010 after roles at Gala Coral (now known as Gala Bingo), Debenhams and Topshop/Topman, Roberts is already well acquainted with the business. But he faces some formidable challenges ahead to get the REIT back on track after a difficult 2018 in which two takeover bids – a £3.4bn bid from rival Hammerson and £2.9bn talks with a consortium led by John Whittaker and Brookfield – collapsed. See also: Intu scuppers dividend as values plummet As Roberts takes the helm, he will be charged with reducing intu’s debt-to-assets ratio to below 50% through disposals and part-disposals. He tells EG how he plans to tackle his new job. Congratulations on the new role. What’s the first thing you will do as chief executive? Obviously, today I have been taking a lot of calls, but the best part of the job for me is getting out and about, round the centres as well as our offices here and in Madrid, so I’ll be [going on the road]. I have hopefully been a pretty visible chief financial officer, but I would like to be even more visible as a chief executive, from an internal perspective. It is also important, as an ex-retailer, that I spend a lot of time getting to know our retail tenants better, and serving their needs better to improve their businesses and [by extension] our business. What skills will your finance background bring to the role? There are two key parts of the role. One is, in the short to medium term, to address the issues we have with our balance sheet. That is no secret – we have been very transparent about it, particularly in the past six months. We cut our dividend; we’re embarking on a disposal programme, both in the UK and Spain. So I am confident that we will sort out the balance sheet in the short to medium term. Secondly, I want to make sure my lasting legacy is to hand on [the business] in a better condition than I had inherited it in to whoever takes over from me, in however many years’ time. That is about working with our tenants; gaining the right tenants and gaining [those] to invest; finding alternative uses for some of our spaces, be it new forms of leisure such as building hotels, as well as residential, offices and the like; and investing in those centres. That is what I want my legacy to be. Anyone lucky enough to be a long-term owner of properties, or running that business, would want to hand it on to the next generation in better shape than they received it. It has been years since you worked from an occupier’s perspective. Do you plan to bring on board anyone who might be closer to the occupier market, or at least more market-facing than a CFO role might traditionally entail? That’s a good question. I have spent most of my working life being a tenant, having worked at Topshop, Debenhams and the like. While I have no immediate plans to refresh the team, over time – given that our tenant business is evolving very quickly, and property directors at retail companies nowadays do not necessarily come from a property background, but from other parts of those businesses – there is definitely a need for us to bring in additional skill sets. We have done that in the past – [with our] digital business, for example, which did not exist three or four years ago. The pace of change among our tenants does mean that we need to change at pace as well. How will your approach differ to that of David Fischel? We work very well together – I’m a big fan of David’s – but we have different ways of doing things and different styles. I want to get out and spend more time in the centres, and more time with our tenants. Are you daunted by the challenges ahead? After all, there is a massive debt pile to reduce, and a lot of disposals to be overseeing in a very stale investment market That’s an opportunity, isn’t it? Hopefully, the low share price and some of the issues you have described [can be] viewed as an opportunity. There is a lot to do, but I am fit, healthy and up for the challenge. It is a real honour to take on the role, and I’m really looking forward to getting started. To send feedback, e-mail pui-guan.man@egi.co.uk or tweet @PuiGuanM or @estatesgazette