At a time when retail landlords are coming unstuck from a surfeit of space on the high street, Shaftesbury has sought to push its unique quality as host of London’s West End entertainment.
To some extent, that’s a narrative investors had bought into up until last year’s crash. Unlike shopping centre landlords like Hammerson, or the group’s largest shareholder and fellow FTSE 250 constituent Capital & Counties, the shares had held steady since the Brexit referendum. Still, a share price total return of just 0.2 per cent in almost four years is hardly cause for celebration.
The devastation wrought by lockdown and international travel restrictions on footfall to shops, bars and restaurants has hammered rental collection rates and sent asset valuations plummeting. The shares
