Some of Britain's biggest commercial property companies have drawn up contingency plans – effectively "living wills" – to try to ensure they can survive any future crash in the market without turning to shareholders or banks for help.
The plans involve identifying a list of assets that would be swiftly and decisively sold during a crisis to bolster battered balance sheets.
Leading global banks are under political pressure to produce so-called "living wills" to set out how, in the event of their collapse, they could be broken-up orderly without taxpayer support.
The move by property companies has been made after they were forced to go cap-in-hand to investors for more than £5bn this year with deeply-discounted and highly-dilutive equity raisings.
A 44pc fall in UK property capital values from the peak of 2007, including an unprecedented 15pc collapse in the final quarter of 2008, left loan-to-value covenants across the sector on the brink of breaching.
This also pushed companies into selling quality assets at what was close to the bottom of the market, as well as accepting costly refinancings with lenders.
The self-help contingency plans are likely to please shareholders, who have watched the value of their investments eroded over the past two years and were left frustrated by the slow responses of some management teams to the downturn.
One of the companies that has drawn up a "living will" is, according to sources, FTSE 100 shopping centre owner Hammerson under new chief executive David Atkins.
The company has always kept the relevant legal and sales documents so it can move on a sale immediately, unusual in the sector. However, it now plans to gauge the market constantly for demand for its assets, which includes Brent Cross shopping centre and a stake in Bristol's Cabot Circus. The company will keep and update a sale programme that could be activated in the event of another collapse in the market, which it is not forecasting at the moment.
This should allow Hammerson to avoid the situation that occurred at the end of 2008, when the sale of Les Trois Quartiers in Paris fell through at the last minute and the company's board had then to approve a £609m rights issue to protect the balance sheet. Hammerson declined to comment.
Harry Stokes, property analyst at Evolution Securities, said it was "difficult to criticise" the preparedness of property companies for the downturn because it was so severe. However, he said that "none of them got it right".
"Some have already indicated that their strategy will change and they will look for different assets and possibly abroad," he explained.
"They are saying, 'Maybe we needed to be a little bit more diversified'."
A spokesman for Land Securities said it had moved to increase the number of assets it wholly-owned to 85pc of the portfolio. Also, it has focused on raising debt against a pool of assets, rather than individual properties.
Landlords are also seeking to manage their properties more efficiently to preserve rental income.
Hammerson, for example, is monitoring the turnover of shops in its centres to ensure it has the right retailers in the right places, and is using marketing initiatives, such as loyalty card events, to boost footfall in underperforming areas.
Ian Fletcher, director of policy at the British Property Federation, said drawing up contingency plans for potential eventualities was "part and parcel of being well-managed".
He added: "The commercial property sector is looking forward confidently to a better 2010, but is always mindful of its obligations to its shareholders and other investors."
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