Boss of Brent Cross shopping centre owner Hammerson to leave in 2026
The boss of Brent Cross and Bull Ring shopping centre owner Hammerson has revealed plans to step down in 2026 after five years in the top job.
Rita-Rose Gagne will stay in post as chief executive for the next 12 months while the group hunts for her successor and to ensure a smooth handover.
She took on the role in November 2020, joining from global real estate company Ivanhoe Cambridge, where she was president of growth markets.
Robert Noel, chairman of Hammerson, praised Ms Gagne's 'outstanding leadership and immense contribution' to the firm.
He said: 'She has driven a substantial turnaround, transforming and strengthening Hammerson into the largest UK-listed, pure-play owner and manager of prime retail and leisure anchored city destinations.'
Ms Gagne said now was the right time to 'pass on the baton' and retire from the firm.
'In 2026 I will have been with Hammerson for an incredible five years, during which time I have been privileged to work with our talented teams to transform our culture, balance sheet and portfolio, returning the business to growth,' she said.
'With the business in great shape, a strong team, and significant opportunities ahead, it is an exciting time for Hammerson and the right time for me to pass on the baton,' she added.
A trained lawyer, Ms Gagne's early career saw her work as a senior partner at global law firm Fasken, covering real estate, infrastructure, corporate mergers and acquisitions.
Hammerson owns a raft of retail sites and real estate in the UK, Ireland and France, also including Cabot Circus in Bristol and Westquay in Southampton.
It saw underlying earnings fall 15% to £99 million last year after it offloaded some retail assets, including its stake in Bicester Village owner Value Retail to private equity firm L Catterton, backed by French luxury good giant LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy).
It booked a £497 million impairment in the first half of 2024 due to the sale, despite banking £595 million in cash from the deal.
The group at the time cheered a 'transformative' year after the Bicester Village stake sale, which has allowed it to focus on its urban retail real estate and reduce debts.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
More than 130 years later, this pragmatic trust still offers something new
Questor is The Telegraph's stockpicking column, helping you decode the markets and offering insights on where to invest for the past six decades. The UK equity market has been a happy hunting ground for income-seeking investors, and it continues to offer a yield premium to other developed equity markets. However, more recent events, particularly across competing income-producing asset classes, have shifted the emphasis for equity income investors towards total returns, dividend growth and the benefits of a pragmatic approach to stock selection. In the context of an evolving landscape of UK equity income strategies, few names stand out as consistently as Law Debenture. This venerable institution, with almost 136 years of history, combines an actively managed UK equity investment portfolio with the robust growth of its wholly-owned independent professional services (IPS) business, which is comprised of three divisions – pensions, corporate trust and corporate services. This combination creates a unique structure that supports the trust's history of consistent outperformance. The investment portfolio is managed by the experienced Janus Henderson duo of James Henderson and Laura Foll, and benefits from a contrarian and value-focused style. The investment approach followed by Henderson and Foll is unconstrained by the equity income mandate, can invest across the market cap spectrum and targets companies trading at reasonable valuations with conservative balance sheets and experienced management teams. One of the standout features of Law Debenture is the IPS business, which accounts for around 19pc of its net asset value (Nav) and has funded approximately 30pc of its dividends over the past decade. IPS has delivered mid-to-high single-digit growth and around two thirds of IPS revenues are recurring.
The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
The Original Factory Shop launches closing down sale at yet another store – see full list of locations closing in June
THE Original Factory Shop has launched a closing down sale at yet another store. A branch in Heswall is the latest store to announce its closure, leaving shoppers heartbroken. 1 The Merseyside branch has launched closing down sale to help shift stock before it shutters for good. Shoppers have a chance to grab up to 70% off selected lines, and 50% off electrical products. The Henswell store opened two years ago in June 2023. The exact date the store is closing has not yet been confirmed but The Sun will update this piece when we hear more. Up to 11 TOFS stores are already to set to close this month, including sites across Worcestershire, Durham and Cumbria . Meanwhile, another five stores across Nairn, Market Drayton, Troon, Blairgowrie and Castle Douglas have been placed up for sale. The Original Factory Shop has told The Sun that negotiations are ongoing with landlords - making it unclear whether these shops will remain open. It comes as part of a major restructuring carried out by new owner Modella Capital with a number of loss making stores having to close as result. Over June nine of these stores will close, including sites in Dorest and Durham. Another site in Middlewich is also set to close however a date is yet to be confirmed. Popular retailer to RETURN 13 years after collapsing into administration and shutting 236 stores You can see the full list of store closures here: Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire - June 26 Perth - June 28 Chester Le Street, County Durham - June 28 Arbroath, Angus - June 28 Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire - June 28 Pershore, Worcestershire - June 28 Normanton, West Yorkshire - June 28 Peterhead, Aberdeenshire - June 28 Shaftesbury, Dorset - June 28 Staveley, Cumbria - July 12 Middlewich - TBC Heswall - TBC The following stores are also up for sale: Nairn Market Drayton Troon Blairgowrie Castle Douglas What's been happening with The Original Factory Shop? Private equity firm Modella bought The Original Factory Shop back in February and has since launched a restructuring effort to renegotiate rents at 88 TOFS stores. Modella is known for picking up struggling retailers, having also recently acquired Hobbycraft and WHSmith 's high street shops. It is set to rebrand all WHSmith high street stores to TGJones, and has brought in advisers to look at potential options for Hobbycraft. At the end of April, Modella drew up plans to initiate a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) for TOFS. Companies often use CVAs to prevent insolvency, which could otherwise result in store closures or the collapse of the entire business. They allow firms to explore different strategies such as negotiating reduced rent rates with landlords. TOFS previously told The Press and Journal that a "number of loss-making stores will have to close" as part of the restructuring. It said at the time: "Closing stores is always a tough decision and we are committed to keeping as many stores open as possible. And it is not only TOFS that is facing hard times. Hobbycraft is set to close nine stores come June 21. RETAIL PAIN IN 2025 The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion. Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April. A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024. Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure. The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year. It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year. Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025." Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector. "By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
Did ChatGPT get the spending review right? Treasury minister gives his verdict
The chief secretary to the Treasury has called the Sky News-Chat GPT spending review projection "pretty good" and scored it 70%. Darren Jones compared the real spending review, delivered by Rachel Reeves on Wednesday, and the Sky News AI (artificial intelligence) projection last week. Sky News took the Treasury's spring statement, past spending reviews, the 'main estimates' from the Treasury website, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies' projections, and put them into ChatGPT, asking it to calculate the winners and losers in the spending review. This was done 10 days ahead of the review - before several departments had agreed their budgets with the Treasury - on the basis of projections based on those public documents. It also comes amid a big debate kicked off by Sky News about the level of error of AI. The Sky News-AI projection correctly put defence and health as the biggest winners, the Foreign Office as the biggest loser, and identified many departments would lose out in real terms overall. It suggested the education budget would be smaller than it turned out, but correctly highlighted the challenges for departments like the Home Office and environment. Watch what happened with Sky's AI-generated spending review 1:31 Reviewing the exercise, the author of the real spending review told Sky News that this pioneering use of AI was "pretty, pretty good". He added: "I could be out of a job next time in 2027, which to be honest, it's not a bad idea given the process I've just had to go through." The Treasury made a number of accounting changes to so-called "mega projects" which AI could not have anticipated, and changed some of the numbers. 3:43 Asked to give it a score, Mr Jones replied: "I'm going to give it 70%." The spending review includes AI as a tool to save money in various government processes.
