SHARES in major Merseyside retail landlord Land Securities rose yesterday after the firm confirmed it was shelving plans for a three way demerger.

In its half-yearly report Land Securities said the turmoil in the financial markets was forcing it to abandon plans to split its London property, UK retail and real estate outsourcing units into distinct businesses.

The announcement sent the company’s shares upwards as traders welcomed an end to the uncertainty.

Land Securities owns St John’s and Clayton Square shopping centres in Liverpool city centre as well as Aintree Racecourse and Chester retail parks.

In July Land Securities said its planned £100m overhaul of the St John’s shopping centre in Liverpool remained on track despite admitting the project was not yet part of its “formal development pipeline”.

In June it secured planning permission to remodel the centre and increase the floorspace by almost a quarter.

Work is due to start in 2009 with an anticipated finish by 2013 but in a trading statement at the time the company said: “This project does not yet form part of our formal development pipeline, but can be delivered from 2013.”

Yesterday retail director Richard Akers said: “Our view on Liverpool is a lot has changed and it is all for the good. The retail heart is very compact.

“We are making very good progress with planning and getting design elements in place.”

Work has started on the £2m refurbishment of Clayton Square shopping centre and will continue until next summer.

Land Securities reported a £1.737bn half year loss after revaluing its portfolio and other exceptional costs. That compares with a £365.2m profit at the same stage last year.

Of the demerger plans, chief executive Francis Salway said: “My analogy would be we have closed the file – we’re not constantly going to be re-looking at it. We are now focused on running the business as is.”

tonymcdonough