Aldi signs up for empty Ilva store

Supermarket chain Aldi has signed a lease on the former Ilva furniture store in Manchester’s Piccadilly Basin, owners Town Centre Securities (LSE: TCS) said today.

It said the German-owned discounter would occupy 17,000 sq ft of the 200,000 sq ft of space and would open for trade in November.

Leeds-based TCS said it was “the first very important step in re-establishing the value at our retail store at Piccadilly Basin”.

The collapse of Danish retailer Ilva’s UK operation in June 2008 left the landlords with a £500,000 bad debt.

TSC said today it would “continue to examine exciting ideas for the rest of the property”. The company has previously said it would like to see another lifestyle store take space in the scheme.

In the year to June 30, TCS reported a rise in underlying profit after tax, which excludes property valuation and other one off movements, to £7.9m, compared with £7.2m in 2008.

However, the company reported a revaluation deficit of £107.7m, a fall of 26.1 per cent in like for like terms. This led to a loss after tax of £111.6m compared with a loss of £11.2m last year.

Net assets fell to £107.2m (202p per share) compared with £223m at the last year end.