Eurocommercial Properties agrees rent deferrals in coronavirus-hit Italy

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 12, 2020

Malls giant Eurocommercial Properties announced its coronavirus strategy on Thursday morning given the large number of shopping centres it has in Italy. And that strategy focuses on delaying some rent payments for its tenants.

The company said that the Italian government’s decree ordering virtually all shopping centres and retail locations in Italy to be closed until March 25 (except for grocery stores and pharmacies), will impact the shops in its eight Italian shopping locations.

These include Carosello, Collestrada, Cremona Po, Curno, Fiordaliso, I Gigli, I Portali and Il Castello. 

It said that since initial trading restrictions were imposed over the last two weekends in Lombardy and Veneto, the company “has been in regular communication with its tenants and is very appreciative of the impact on retailers and their staff”.

As a result, it’s “reviewing requests for rent deferrals from tenants on a case-by-case basis and has decided to grant a number of rent payment deferrals for the second quarter of 2020”. 

Rents are usually payable quarterly in advance, but for these tenants, Q2 rents “will be invoiced per month”.

And it added that “this extraordinary temporary support does not waive any contractual rent or lease obligations from our tenants but could have a temporary impact on our cash flows”.

It’s continuing to monitor the situation closely “bearing in mind that the health and safety of our employees and partners is our priority”.

It didn’t say anything about its properties in other countries though. The company owns and operates 28 retail centres in Belgium, France, Italy, and Sweden and has total assets of €4.1 billion.

The Italian centres host a large number of fashion names including Bershka, Desigual, H&M, Guess, Tezenis, Aldo, Geox, Claire’s, JD Sports, Pandora and more.