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Hammerson plc

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Hammerson plc

“The lack of political clarity regarding climate change policy makes it even more important for business to step up and help shape our sector’s response to this increasingly pressing issue.” — Hammerson plc1

Company

Hammerson plc2
www.hammerson.com

Headquarters

London, UK

Market Cap

USD $3.48 billion

Company History

1942 Started in residential property
1948 Expanded into commercial property
1954 Became a public company

Properties

21 shopping centers in the UK, Ireland and France
13 retail parks in the UK
20 premium outlets across Europe

Value-Added

Maintains a sustainable design standard
for commercial developments.3

*Data as of March 31, 2019.

hammerson bullring
Hammerson shopping center, the Bullring, in Birmingham, UK
Source: Unsplash

Who is Hammerson plc?

Have you shopped at your local main street or a shopping mall recently? You probably didn’t need to buy nearly as much as you might have twenty years ago. Online shopping has upended the in-person retail experience. Familiar department brands such as, Toy R Us and Sears in the US or Debenhams and House of Fraser in the UK have shut stores and even gone bankrupt. Hammerson plc is a European Retail REIT owning and operating shopping centers predominantly in the UK, Ireland and France. Retail properties like shopping centers, retail parks, and outlet malls have been forced to change as more people turn to online shopping; in the UK online shopping now accounts for 18% of consumer transactions.4 As technology changes how we consume, retail REITs like Hammerson are re-evaluating their portfolio of properties and making changes to how consumers interact with the built environment. Hammerson has decided to dispose of some properties and focus on its large shopping centers, reimagining the role of its retail properties to be places for not just for shopping, but congregating places where people go to experience a “big day out.”5 The company’s program “City Quarters” focuses on diversifying previously retail-only centers to include office, hotel and housing units alongside permanent retail units, pop-shops, events and entertainment. The company actively engages retail tenants to design their space for energy reduction as tenants’ energy use makes up 60% of a property’s overall use of energy.

Strategy Spotlight: Positive Places

The built environment that which we interface with each day has enormous potential to ‘go green.’ Hammerson has put energy reduction at the core of their corporate strategy. In 2017, Hammerson launched its most ambitious targets to-date and a global first for the property sector: to be Net Positive for carbon, resource use, water, waste and socio-economic impacts by 2030. Using these objectives as a foundation, the Hammerson rolled out a company-wide program called Positive Places to rally all departments to create goals and objectives around specified sustainability targets.

Positive Places Logo

Positive Places is the umbrella branding for Hammerson’s 2030 Net Positive targets to: reduce energy consumption, waste generation, and water consumption. The company aims to give more back into the environment and community than is used and connects resource use and business in the following ways:

  • Reduce exposure to energy price volatility and carbon pricing.
  • Supporting relationships with local stakeholders in developing programs for the local communities.
  • Ensure the properties can provide a comfortable environment in a changing climate.
  • Identify potential renewable energy projects to include in building design.

After building a company-wide strategy around these objectives, Hammerson reports an 11% reduction in absolute carbon emissions in 2018 across the retail portfolios, a total reduction of 22% since 2015.6

Hammerson trades on the London Stock Exchange and is subject to the UK Companies Act of 2006. Beginning in 2013, the Act required publicly-listed UK companies to disclose annual greenhouse gas emissions.7 Hammerson reports year-on-year metrics for carbon emissions, energy demand, water demand and waste management. An example of the company’s most recent carbon emissions and energy consumption is shown in Chart 1.1 and Chart 1.2 below:

Carbon Emissions Chart
Energy Consumption Chart

Note:  EPRA refers to the European Public Real Estate Association. The policy group has worked to promote environmental metrics in regulatory and business frameworks.
Source: Hammerson plc (2019). “2018 Sustainability Report: Positive Places,” 14. Hammerson plc.Retrieved from: http://sustainability.hammerson.com/downloads/download417.pdf

Many companies do the absolute minimum for this legal requirement. Hammerson turned this legal obligation into a business advantage to develop their Net Positive goals and the corresponding Positive Places business strategy. Today’s global policy and business landscape is catching up with more formalized climate change reporting guidelines requested through the global Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and US-based Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB). Together, TCFD and SASB create an integrated framework and standards to roll-up existing company reporting on climate-related metrics into mainstream corporate reporting.

1 Hammerson plc (2019). “2018 Sustainability Report:  Positive Places,” 7. Hammerson plc. Retrieved from:    http://sustainability.hammerson.com/downloads/download417.pdf
2 Hammerson plc is 0.46% of the Vert Global Sustainable Real Estate Fund (VGSRX) as of March 31, 2019.
3 Hammerson plc (2019). “Development Approach. Sustainable Design Brief.” Hammerson plc. Retrieved from: http://sustainability.hammerson.com/downloads/download402.pdf.
4 Hammerson plc (2019). “Hammerson plc – Results for the year ended 31 December 2018.”Hammerson plc.Retrieved from: https://www.hammerson.com/media/press-releases/2018-full-year-results/
5 Kollewe, Julia (25 February 2019). “Bullring owner targets £900m-plus sell-off as retail crisis bites,”The Guardian, Business. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/feb/25/bullring-owner-sell-retail-crisis-hammerson
6 Hammerson (2019). “2018 Sustainability Report:  Positive Places,” 4. Hammerson plc. Retrieved from: http://sustainability.hammerson.com/downloads/download417.pdf
7 Carbon Trust (2019). “Mandatory Carbon Reporting.” Available: https://www.carbontrust.com/resources/guides/carbon-footprinting-and-reporting/mandatory-carbon-reporting/

Please refer to the Prospectus for full risk disclosures. All data as of March 31, 2019 and subject to change daily.

The Vert Global Sustainable Real Estate Strategy operated as mutual fund from October 31, 2017 and prior to the fund reorganization on December 4, 2023. The investment objectives have not changed.

Investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible. Investors should be aware of the risks involved with investing in a fund concentrating in REITs and real estate securities, such as declines in the value of real estate and increased susceptibility to adverse economic or regulatory developments. Investments in foreign securities involve political, economic and currency risks, greater volatility and differences in accounting methods. A REIT’s share price may decline because of adverse developments affecting the real estate industry. REITs may be subject to special tax rules and may not qualify for favorable federal tax treatment which could have adverse tax consequences. The Fund’s focus on sustainability may limit the number of investment opportunities available to the fund and at time the fund may under perform funds that are not subject to similar investment considerations. Diversification does not assure a profit or protect against loss in a declining market.

Please refer to the prospectus for important information about the investment company including investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses which must be considered carefully before investing. You may also obtain a hardcopy of the prospectus by calling 1-844-740-VERT. Read it carefully before investing.

The performance data quoted represents past performance. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when sold or redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost and current performance may be lower or higher than the performance quoted. Performance is annualized for periods greater than 1 year. For performance current to the most recent month end please call 1-844-740-VERT. Standardized performance of the Fund is viewable under the Information tab. Click here for standardized performance of the Fund.

Fund holdings and/or sectors are subject to change at any time and are not recommendations to buy or sell any security. Current and future holdings are subject to change. Click here for the Fund’s current top ten holdings.

Basis points are otherwise known as bps or “bips,” are a unit of measure used in finance to describe the percentage change in the value of financial instruments or the rate change in an index.

The Fund is offered only to United States residents, and information on this site is intended only for such persons. Nothing on this web site should be considered a solicitation to buy or an offer to sell shares of the Fund in any jurisdiction where the offer or solicitation would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

ETFs are subject to additional risks that do not apply to conventional mutual funds, including the risks that the market price of an ETF’s shares may trade at a premium or discount to its net asset value, an active secondary trading market may not develop or be maintained, or trading may be halted by the exchange in which they trade, which may impact a Fund’s ability to sell its shares. Shares of any ETF are bought and sold at market price (not NAV) and are not individually redeemed from the Fund. Brokerage commissions will reduce returns.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria refer to activities that contribute to the business that not quantified in typical financial reporting.

The Vert Global Sustainable Real Estate ETF is distributed by Quasar Distributors, LLC.

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