DEVELOPER St Modwen aims to progress two Merseyside schemes worth £450m, despite announcing annual losses of £101.7m.

The company, which has a Warrington regional base, said it plans to make headway on its £300m bid to redevelop Skelmersdale town centre and its £150m Project Jennifer scheme in Everton’s Great Homer Street.

North-West director Michelle Taylor said: “There was good news for Skelmersdale town centre in late 2009 when the Tesco/Everton proposals for Kirkby were rejected.

“We are now working up proposals for the first phase of development and a planning application is expected to be made later this year.”

On Project Jennifer, which includes a supermarket, non-food retail stores, 481 new homes and a health centre, she added: “We expect to be embarking on the land assembly exercise, via CPO (compulsory purchase orders), in the spring/summer of 2010, for this transformational development.”

The company was bullish despite reporting a drop in revenues for the year to November 30 from £146.5m to £113.7m and a pre-tax loss of £101.7m, including tax credits, compared with a £50.7m deficit previously.

But the company said it made a trading profit of £8.4m against £19.5m in 2008, excluding revaluations, and chairman Anthony Glossop said the group was well placed for an upturn: “Our financial position is sound; our business model will increasingly create value; and we are in a good position to seize attractive opportunities.”