The Duke of Westminster _100
THE Duke of Westminster, Britain’s richest landowner, is in talks with banks over concerns his £690m shopping centre fund could be in breach of its banking covenants.
Grosvenor, the company that built and owns the £1bn Liverpool One development, has been hit by falling property values and the slump in the retail market.
The company confirmed that it was in negotiations with its banks, but denied it had failed to heed advice from its investors to reduce borrowings, ahead of the collapse of property values.
Although Grosvenor showed a 3% rise in profits to £524m last year, the costs of the Liverpool One development slashed £140m from its balance sheet.
Mervyn Howard, the head of Grosvenor’s UK fund management, said: “The Grosvenor Shopping Centre Fund is in advanced discussions with their lenders on the terms of a renewal of their bank facilities. We report quarterly to investors and at the end of the second quarter of 2007 we reported that we were concerned at the level of debt and we needed to address it.
