The big British property developer behind Aberdeen's Union Square revealed today that the group had slashed its losses in 2021.
Hammerson reported that it was in the red last year to the tune of £429million - compared to losses of £1.734billion in 2020.
The company's portfolio includes 20 flagship destinations in the UK, France and Ireland.
Among them is the Granite City's Union Square - the area's largest retail and leisure destination. It is home to more than 50 brands and high-street favourites, and also over 30 restaurants and a cinema.
Hammerson has raised hundreds of millions of pounds from recent disposals.
Hammerson CEO Rita-Rose Gagne said this morning: "Since the beginning of 2021, we have made fundamental changes in our business, realigning our portfolio with £623million of disposals, significantly strengthening the balance sheet, re-setting our organisation and putting in place a clear strategy for value creation focused on our prime urban estates.
"The pandemic has accelerated trends in our operating environment, with people engaging with physical space in new ways.
"Our role is to create and curate relevant, appealing and sustainable spaces for the future.
"We are already seeing the tangible results from our strategy with strong occupier leasing demand, reduced vacancies, improved collections, a lower cost base and clear path to value creation from our land bank. We have more to do."
The CEO said Hammerson continues to re-align its portfolio through a disciplined disposals programme of non-core assets, re-focusing the group on a portfolio of prime urban estates, reducing indebtedness and generating capital for redeployment into core assets and developments.
She went on: "We have made considerable progress in 2021, reducing our net debt by 19% to £1.8billion, extending our debt maturities, and simplifying and focusing our portfolio.
"We achieved this through completed sales of £433million of assets, including minority stakes in Espace Saint-Quentin and Nicetoile in France and a collection of non-strategic retail and commercial properties in the UK.
"This work continues and, since the year end, we have completed the sale of Victoria, Leeds, for £120million, and expect to complete the sale of Silverburn, Glasgow, for £70million, at our share, by the end of March."
FTSE 100
Meanwhile, it was a disappointing day for the UK's top share index yesterday, as the oil-price surge kindles inflation fears.
The FTSE 100 closed at 7,238 - down by 190 points. Trading also got off to a poor start today, with the index shedding another 27 points to stand at 7,211.
The April contract for Brent crude was sitting at $111.71 a barrel this morning, down from Thursday's high just under $120.
Companies reporting today
Full-year results: Hammerson, Morgan Advanced Materials
Other updates
IHS Markit/CIPS UK construction PMI survey for February