British Land hires lawyers to scrutinise retail rescue deals

British Land, the FTSE 100 commercialized spot company, has hired lawyers to scrutinise rescue deals for the precocious thoroughfare retailers Poundland and River Island.

Sky News has learnt that Hogan Lovells, the City instrumentality firm, has been instructed by British Land to question further accusation connected restructuring plans that the 2 chains accidental are indispensable for their survival.

British Land owns 20 Poundland stores, 13 of which would spot rents compromised nether its restructuring plan, portion it is River Island's landlord astatine 22 shops - 7 of which would beryllium affected.

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Retail manufacture sources said that British Land had already struck deals to re-let immoderate of the affected Poundland sites.

The company, which has a marketplace capitalisation of ? and is 1 of Britain's biggest commercialized landlords, is understood to person abstained connected the River Island restructuring program vote.

The assignment of Hogan Lovells does not magnitude to a determination to formally situation the restructurings, but that remains an enactment successful some cases, according to manufacture sources.

Hogan Lovells has been engaged connected a drawstring of erstwhile challenges to retailers' rescue deals connected the ground that they unfairly compromised property-owners.

About 20,000 jobs would perchance beryllium enactment astatine hazard if Poundland and River Island were to illness altogether.

Both look sanctions hearings successful tribunal this period which volition find whether their rescue deals tin spell ahead.

Even if the proposals are rubber-stamped, astir 100 stores successful aggregate crossed the 2 chains volition beryllium permanently closed.

British Land declined to comment.