Klépierre has revealed that it approached Hammerson on 8^th March with an offer of 615 pence per share, a 40.7% premium on the British developer’s then share price of 437.1 pence. The board of Hammerson rejected the proposal the next day.

Hammerson is responsible or jointly responsible for 37 shopping centres and retail parks across the UK, Ireland and France. UK assets include London's Brent Cross and Birmingham's Bullring. It has four shopping centres in France (Paris, Beauvais, Cergy-Pontoise and Marseilles).

Klépierre's intervention threatened to put the skids under a deal that Hammerson is itself currently working. It announced in December plans for an agreed £3.4bn takeover of Intu, the owner of Lakeside Thurrock, Merry Hill in Dudley, the Gateshead Metrocentre and Manchester's Trafford Centre.

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