THE Duke of Westminster has seen the value of his investment in city centre shopping development Liverpool One slip by £165.3m during 2008 according to figures published yesterday.
The Duke’s company, Grosvenor, blamed the international credit crunch and the economic downturn for the write off.
Yesterday’s bad news follows similar write downs of £49m last year and £140m the year before.
It means what was a £1bn project has now seen a total of £354m wiped off its value.
Grosvenor says 90% of the 1.6m sq ft Liverpool One scheme, opened in two phases last year, is let.
The company remains confident about its long-term future.
Mark Preston, group chief executive, said: “This is a challenging time for the property industry and inevitably Grosvenor has been affected.
“But the impact has been cushioned by our well-diversified portfolio, low (debts) and steps taken since 2007 to curb acquisitions and reduce our development exposure. Hence, the impact on net asset value is relatively limited.”
Anticipating poorer economic conditions, Grosvenor has reduced its exposure to the credit crunch by delaying the start of new projects while concentrating on completing existing ones, including Liverpool One.
Grosvenor had cash and undrawn committed facilities with its bankers amounting to £523m, compared to £607m in 2007.
