London Westfield owner looks to Paris Olympics for sales boost

Westfield mall owner Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) believes the Paris Olympics and Paralympics will boost sales in 2024, with a number of its Viparis convention venues hosting events during games. 

Viparis, owned jointly by URW and the Paris chamber of commerce, manages venues such as Parc des Expositions de Villepinte which will be hosting sports such as table tennis and volleyball. 

In an update this morning, the shopping centre operator said signed and pre-booked events in Viparis venues for 2024 amounted to circa 94 per cent of its expected rental income for 2024. 

It comes as the Parisian property group said vacancy rates across its 74 shopping centres returned to pre-pandemic levels at 5.4 per cent during 2023. 

Throughout the year, sales from its tenants were up 6.4 per cent when compared to last year figures. In the UK, where it has two sites in London, tenant sales were up 5.2 per cent. 

Shares in the firm were up over five per cent this morning 

Jean-Marie Tritant, chief executive officer, said: “We made further deleveraging progress in challenging investment market conditions, securing 11 transactions totalling €1bn (£85m)

Total disposals since 2021 have contributed €5.1bn (£4.35bn) to our net debt reduction, and we remain committed to further deleveraging.”

He added: “We will propose a cash payment this year of €2.50 (£2.12) per share, for approval at our AGM in April, and will significantly increase the distribution in future years as we make further progress on our strategic and financial objectives.”