Westfield’s profits drop despite shoppers flocking to Westfield London and Stratford City
Australian shopping mall behemoth Westfield has announced a fall in profits in its full-year results but its London centres attracted more shoppers in 2016.
Westfield London and Stratford City generated combined annual sales of around £2.2bn from 75m customer visits, the company said.
The shopping centre firm’s net profit for the year stood at $1.3bn (£1.09bn) compared to $2.32bn a year earlier.
Read more: Weak pound draws tourists to London's Westfield centres
Westfield’s funds from operations (FFO) for the 12 months to 31 December hit $700m in line with forecasts.
Westfield's co-chief executives, Peter Lowy and Steven Lowy, said: “2016 was a significant year for Westfield, which saw the continued execution of our strategy to transform our assets into the pre-eminent global shopping centre portfolio.
“The operating performance for the year was solid. During the year we successfully opened Westfield World Trade Center and commenced the expansion at Valley Fair in San Jose. We continued to make good progress on the redevelopment of Century City in Los Angeles, the expansion at UTC in San Diego and the expansion at Westfield London."
Read more: Westfield Stratford set for more visitors in 2016 than in Olympics year
Back in September, Westfield said it was attracting Chinese tourists after the value of the pound fell following the Brexit vote.
In July, Chinese spend in Westfield Stratford jumped 116 per cent year-on-year while Chinese spend in Westfield London, White City, increased by 16 per cent.