Hammerson continues to trade on a high with further good news on two fronts. The first is the property giant has acquired of the remaining 50% interest in The Oracle, Reading, mall for £104.5 million. The second is that its year-to-date operational performance has been “strong” allowing the business to upgrade its earnings guidance for FY25.
Acquisition of The Oracle means it’s no longer a joint venture operation with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, noting the headline price of £104.5 million, “reflect[ed] a stabilised yield of 8.9% and the opportunity to capture its future growth”. The acquisition is expected to be circa-5% accretive to the group’s FY26 earnings it noted .
Hammerson described the The Oracle, Reading, as “one of the top retail, leisure and lifestyle destinations in the UK… benefitting from significant landlord and occupier investment in recent years to repurpose the former House of Fraser to new offers from TK Maxx and Hollywood Bowl”.
The landlord has also enjoyed securing “a flurry of additional leasing deals” including flagship store upsizes with Zara and Apple, both due to open in H1 26, and renewals with premium [beauty] brands L’Occitane and Space NK.
“Year to date, we have exchanged 30 deals at The Oracle, representing £4.5 million of headline rent, or around £21 million of rent contracted to first break. Long-term deals were signed at spreads ahead of both previous passing rent and ERV on a net effective basis”, it added.
For good measure it has also driven occupancy up from 93% at the start of the year to 97% while like-for-like footfall for Q3 sapped up 10% year-on-year following the openings of TK Maxx and Hollywood Bowl, with footfall up 3% year-to-date.
Q3 like-for-like sales were also up 3% quarter-on-quarter and it has seen a 17% rise since Q1, “with the benefit of new openings yet to come”, it added, noting there are “additional opportunities to unlock further value, including the former Debenhams and existing cinema block around the riverside where we are exploring retail, F&B, leisure and BTR options”.
Finally, it said the property’s value is up 11% since 2023, “benefitting from the investment in repositioning”.
Hammerson CEO Rita-Rose Gagné added: “We have seized the opportunity to gain full control of The Oracle, an asset in transition, to capture the growth opportunities ahead. This represents our fourth JV buyout in a little over a year, as we continue to act decisively and execute our growth strategy at pace.
Combined with our continued strong performance and acquisition of The Oracle, we expect further growth in 2026 and 2027 as the full benefits of our repositionings and acquisitions come through, underpinning the group’s medium-term guidance of an 8-10% EPRA EPS CAGR.”
