The board of Hammerson, the owner of Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre, has abandoned its planned buyout of smaller rival Intu, the company behind Manchester’s Trafford centre. Intu’s board said it would consider a request from Hammerson not to convene a shareholders’ meeting to vote on the merger. Nick Bubb, an independent retail analyst, described the about turn by Hammerson’s board on the Intu deal as “embarrassing”. David Atkins, the chief executive of Hammerson, said: “It is clear that the heightened risks to the Intu acquisition now outweigh the longer-term benefits. The French company ditched its takeover plans last week after Hammerson’s board rejected its £5.04bn offer as “wholly inadequate”.

Source: The Guardian April 18, 2018 11:16 UTC