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David Fischel

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David Fischel
BornApril 1958
NationalityBritish
EducationChartered accountant (qualified 1983, Touche Ross & Co)
OccupationBusinessman, chartered accountant
CompanyIntu (formerly Liberty International and Capital Shopping Centres Group)
TitleChief Executive, Liberty International, Capital Shopping Centres Group and Intu Properties (2001 to 2019)

David Andrew Fischel (born April 1958) is a British businessman and chartered accountant. He was chief executive of the shopping centre landlord that was known in turn as Liberty International, Capital Shopping Centres Group (CSC) and Intu Properties, from March 2001 until April 26, 2019.[1][2] He joined the group in 1985 and spent his whole executive career with it, becoming finance director in 1988 and managing director in 1992.[2]

Fischel took over as chief executive while the group's founder, Donald Gordon, was still chairman. Over the next decade he ran a company that held shopping centres alongside central London property, including the Covent Garden estate and the Earls Court and Olympia exhibition sites. He then oversaw the 2010 demerger that split the business in two. The shopping centre half, renamed Capital Shopping Centres Group, kept him as chief executive. In 2011 it bought the Trafford Centre from the Peel Group, and in 2013 it rebranded as Intu.[3][4]

Fischel's last two years in the job were dominated by bids for the company. In December 2017 Intu agreed a £3.4 billion all-share takeover by Hammerson, and Fischel expected to stand down once it completed. Hammerson withdrew its recommendation in April 2018. Fischel announced in July 2018 that he would leave once a successor was found. A second possible offer, from a consortium of Peel, the Olayan Group and Brookfield Property Group, was withdrawn in November 2018.[5][6][7] His chief financial officer, Matthew Roberts, succeeded him on April 29, 2019. Intu entered administration on June 26, 2020, 14 months after Fischel left.[8][9]

Outside the group, Fischel sat on the board of the American shopping centre real estate investment trust Equity One from January 2011 to January 2016, as the nominee of Intu's subsidiary Liberty International Holdings.[10] As of October 2026, Companies House lists him as an active director of two long-established private property companies, Ferensway Limited and Marlowe Investments (Kent) Limited.[1]

Early life and education

Little has been published about Fischel's family background or schooling. Companies House records give his birth as April 1958 and his nationality as British.[1] The ages given in US proxy statements fit that date: 52 in March 2011 and 56 in March 2015.[11][12]

He qualified as a chartered accountant in 1983 with the accountancy firm Touche Ross & Co. He left the profession for Liberty International two years later, in 1985.[2] When Equity One's board set out his qualifications, it cited both his years as a real estate executive and his training as a chartered accountant.[11]

Career

Finance director and managing director, 1985 to 2001

Fischel joined Liberty International in 1985. At the time the group was led by Donald Gordon, who had founded it in 1980.[3][13] He became finance director in 1988 and managing director in 1992.[2] Liberty International's 2010 demerger announcement said that "throughout his career at Liberty International, he has been closely involved with its corporate development, including its shopping centre business".[3]

Companies House shows him on the boards of many group subsidiaries during these years. They include Capital Shopping Centres companies registered before August 1992, the subsidiary later called Intu Shopping Centres plc (from February 15, 1994), and the group insurance company Liberty Life Assurance Limited (from October 6, 1997).[1]

Chief executive of Liberty International, 2001 to 2010

Fischel became chief executive in March 2001.[2] That year D. R. Leslie retired as managing director of the Capital Shopping Centres business, on March 27, 2001, and became a non-executive director.[14] Gordon stayed on as chairman. The 2001 accounts were approved on February 12, 2002 and signed by Gordon as chairman and Fischel as chief executive. The annual report said the board recognised "the differing roles of the Chairman and the Chief Executive".[14] Gordon retired in June 2005 and was made the group's life president, a role he held until his death on November 21, 2019.[13]

Liberty International had two main businesses under Fischel: Capital Shopping Centres, which owned regional malls, and Capital & Counties, which held other property, much of it in central London. Liberty International became a UK real estate investment trust on January 1, 2007.[15] At the end of 2006 it raised more than £300 million in a share placing at 1,350p a share to buy a large block of the Covent Garden estate. In 2007 it sold some non-core properties and brought in an investment partner for 40 percent of its interest in the MetroCentre in Gateshead, which helped fund the purchase of the Earls Court and Olympia exhibition business.[15] The 2007 annual report put Capital & Counties' investment in the Covent Garden area at £664 million.[16]

The 2008 financial crisis hit the company hard. Property values fell, and the 2008 accounts showed a pre-tax loss of £2.662 billion, including a £2.051 billion deficit on property revaluations. Net assets per share fell from 1,264p to 745p, and the share price fell from 1,077p to 478p over the year.[15] The board's priority changed, in the words of chairman Patrick Burgess, "from growth to reinforcing the financial strength of the company". It cut the 2008 dividend to the 16.5p interim already paid, sold assets, cut costs, and in April 2009 launched a £620 million firm placing and open offer.[15] For 2008 the executive directors declined any bonus, apart from two payments the company was already committed to under joining arrangements, and none of them asked for or received a salary increase except where a contract required one.[15] Fischel signed the 2008 accounts as chief executive on April 28, 2009.[15]

The 2010 demerger and Capital Shopping Centres Group, 2010 to 2013

On March 9, 2010, Liberty International announced a plan to demerge Capital & Counties as a separately listed company. The group would then rename itself Capital Shopping Centres Group, with Fischel as chief executive and Patrick Burgess as chairman. Capital & Counties would take the Covent Garden estate, the Earls Court and Olympia interests and the group's investments in China. Fischel would join its board as a non-executive director, and Ian Hawksworth would become its chief executive. The Gordon family, which held 14.8 percent of Liberty International, said it would vote in favour.[3] The demerger took effect in May 2010.[17] Fischel sat on the Capital & Counties Properties board from February 2010 to February 2011.[11]

The first large deal of the newly focused company was the purchase of the Trafford Centre in Manchester from the Peel Group. While the deal was pending, the American mall owner Simon Property Group had been weighing an offer for CSC. On January 11, 2011, Simon announced that it did not intend to make a firm offer. That day Fischel's board repeated its recommendation of the revised Trafford Centre terms, announced on January 7, 2011, ahead of a reconvened shareholder meeting on January 26, 2011.[17] The announcement said the deal would leave CSC with 14 UK shopping centres, including four of the top six out-of-town centres. It priced the Trafford Centre at a 4.5 percent discount to its independent valuation of £1.65 billion. Peel would invest further capital in CSC, and its chairman, John Whittaker, would become deputy chairman. Fischel was named as the first contact on the announcement.[17] Matthew Roberts, then finance director, had been part of the team that acquired the Trafford Centre, which Intu later called the UK's largest single property transaction.[2]

The demerger, the Trafford Centre deal and the 2013 rebranding as Intu were the three events chairman John Strachan picked out from Fischel's tenure when his departure was announced in 2018.[4]

Chief executive of Intu Properties, 2013 to 2019

After the rebranding, the company ran a consumer brand across its centres. In July 2018 Fischel described the business as "the UK's only national consumer facing shopping centre brand with a growing digital presence", with 400 million customer visits a year.[18] In the four years to November 2018 the group sold, or sold stakes in, more than £1 billion of smaller centres to fund investment in its largest ones.[7] In July 2018 it was building a £180 million extension at Intu Watford, due to open that October, and a £72 million leisure extension at Intu Lakeside, due in the first half of 2019.[18] It also held a 32 percent interest in Prozone Intu Properties, a listed Indian shopping centre owner and developer, and Fischel sat on Prozone's board.[2]

On December 6, 2017, Hammerson, owner of Birmingham's Bullring, agreed to buy Intu in a £3.4 billion all-share deal. Hammerson shareholders would have owned 55 percent of the combined company. Hammerson's chief executive, David Atkins, and its chairman, David Tyler, would have led the merged group.[5] Fischel planned to stand down once the deal completed.[4] On April 18, 2018, Hammerson stopped recommending the deal to its own shareholders. It said the stock market's view of retail property had "deteriorated" since the start of the year.[19]

On July 26, 2018, the company announced that Fischel would stand down from the board and leave the company once a successor was found. Strachan said the board was "enormously grateful to David for agreeing to remain in post for a longer period than he had envisaged".[4] The same day the company reported a half-year loss of £503.4 million, against a profit of £122.7 million a year earlier, and £6.3 million of costs from the failed merger, mostly legal and advisory fees. Its shares fell on the news.[6] Fischel's results statement noted "a period of weakening sentiment in the retail market which has impacted prime shopping centre valuations". He pointed to 97 percent occupancy and a fourth straight year of like-for-like net rental income growth, of 1.3 percent, despite a 0.9 percent hit from tenant failures.[18]

Intu's nomination committee hired the search firm Heidrick & Struggles to find his successor. The search was paused during the second approach of 2018.[2] On October 4, 2018, Peel, the Olayan Group and Brookfield Property Group said they were considering a cash offer. An independent committee of Intu's board, which excluded Whittaker because of his link to the consortium, negotiated the indicative price up from 200.4p to 210.4p a share and opened Intu's books on October 19, 2018. On November 29, 2018, the consortium said that, given macroeconomic uncertainty, it could not proceed within the timetable of the Takeover Code.[7] That day the company said it would sharply cut its dividend, starting with the 2018 final. The annual dividend was then 14.0p a share, about £188 million a year. It also said it would finish appointing a successor to Fischel.[7]

Fischel gave formal notice on December 31, 2018, under a 12-month notice period. The board expected to appoint a successor well before the notice ran out.[2] His last annual results, published on February 20, 2019, reported property valuations down 9 percent in the first nine months of 2018 and another 3 percent in the fourth quarter. EPRA triple net asset value per share fell from 349p to 271p. In his statement Fischel said "sentiment in the retail sector is at an all-time low", but noted that tenants had invested a record £144 million in their stores during the year.[20]

On April 4, 2019, the board named Matthew Roberts, its chief financial officer since May 2010, as Fischel's successor from April 29, 2019. Fischel left the board and the company on April 26, 2019.[8] Strachan thanked Fischel "for continuing to steer the Group for a longer period than was originally intended".[8] Companies House records show Fischel resigning from his Intu subsidiary directorships on the same day.[1]

After Intu

The company's position worsened after Fischel left. In March 2020 it reported a £2 billion loss for 2019, warned that it might not survive without new funds, and disclosed £4.5 billion of debt. Its shares had lost almost 90 percent of their value in a year.[21] It entered administration on June 26, 2020, with KPMG appointed as administrators.[9]

Companies House shows him as a director of Fibre Real Estate Limited from December 23, 2020; that company has since been dissolved.[22] As of October 2026 he remains a director of Ferensway Limited and Marlowe Investments (Kent) Limited, both appointments dating from April 1, 2000, and Companies House shows his identity verification as complete.[23][24]

Major deals and strategic decisions

  • 2006 to 2007: London expansion. The group raised more than £300 million of equity at 1,350p a share at the end of 2006 to buy into the Covent Garden estate. In 2007 it brought in a 40 percent partner at the MetroCentre and bought Earls Court and Olympia. By early 2009 it had sold more than £1 billion of assets since the end of 2006.[15]
  • 2009: recapitalisation. A £620 million firm placing and open offer, before about £28 million of expenses, was launched in April 2009 after the debt to assets ratio rose to 58 percent.[15]
  • 2010: demerger. Capital & Counties Properties was split off in May 2010, leaving Capital Shopping Centres Group as a UK real estate investment trust focused on regional malls.[3][17]
  • 2011: Trafford Centre and Equity One. CSC bought the Trafford Centre from Peel against an independent valuation of £1.65 billion, with Peel investing further capital in CSC, after Simon Property Group dropped its approach in January 2011.[17] On January 4, 2011, Equity One took a controlling interest in Capital & Counties USA, which owned 13 Californian properties totalling about 2.6 million square feet, through a joint venture with Liberty International Holdings. Liberty International Holdings received about 11.4 million Class A shares in the venture, about 22 percent of it.[25]
  • 2016: exit from Equity One. Liberty International Holdings redeemed its joint venture interest for 11,357,837 Equity One shares on January 12, 2016, and sold them in a public offering underwritten by UBS that closed on January 19, 2016.[10]
  • 2017 to 2018: takeover approaches. Fischel was chief executive during the agreed £3.4 billion Hammerson deal, abandoned in April 2018, and the Peel, Olayan and Brookfield approach at an indicative 210.4p a share, withdrawn in November 2018.[5][19][7]

Financial and market performance

In the first year for which figures are available, Liberty International's 2001 report lists Fischel's salary and service contract pay as £339,937. Chairman Donald Gordon's was £315,000.[14] On September 4, 2007, Fischel exercised share options at a market price of 1,172p, for a gain of £920,375 over the exercise price. His beneficial holding at the end of 2007 was 362,289 shares, up from 337,290 a year earlier.[16]

Intu's 2018 remuneration report gave his total pay as £943,000 for 2018, down from £1,493,000 in 2017. The 2018 figure was made up of £615,000 salary, £20,000 benefits, a £124,000 bonus and £184,000 pension, with no long-term incentive vesting. His 2019 salary was set at £617,916, unchanged from the previous year, and his March 2018 performance share award had a face value of £1,514,500, or 250 percent of salary. At the end of 2018 he held 1,272,433 Intu shares in his own name, which met the requirement for executive directors to hold shares worth 200 percent of salary.[2] The relevant parts of the 2014, 2015 and 2016 performance share awards vested at nil.[2]

The 2019 report covered his departure. He received £320,000 for January 1 to April 26, 2019, against £943,000 for the whole of 2018. Pay in lieu of notice from April 27 to December 31, 2019 came to £416,625 of salary, £124,980 of pension and £13,255 of benefits. He was treated as a good leaver, so deferred share awards worth £223,386 vested shortly after he left. He received no 2019 performance share award, and although he was eligible for a pro-rated 2019 bonus, the remuneration committee decided not to pay one because the serving executives had waived theirs.[13] His successor, Matthew Roberts, was appointed on the same base salary of £617,916.[13]

Selected figures from Fischel's tenure
Year Measure Figure
2008 Loss before tax (Liberty International) £2.662 billion[15]
2008 Net assets per share (diluted, adjusted) 1,264p to 745p[15]
2008 Share price over the year 1,077p to 478p[15]
2018 Portfolio (UK and Spain), September 30 £9.6 billion, 17 UK and three Spanish centres[7]
2018 Half-year result Loss of £503.4 million[6]
2018 EPRA triple net asset value per share 349p to 271p[20]
2018 Loan to value ratio, September 30 50.6 percent[7]

Board memberships and outside roles

  • Liberty International, Capital Shopping Centres Group and Intu Properties: finance director from 1988, managing director from 1992, chief executive from March 2001 to April 26, 2019.[2][8]
  • Capital & Counties Properties PLC: non-executive director, February 2010 to February 2011.[11]
  • Equity One, Inc. (New York Stock Exchange listed shopping centre REIT, later merged into Regency Centers): director from January 2011 to January 19, 2016, as Liberty International Holdings' nominee.[10] The board judged him independent. His 2015 director pay was US$155,170, made up of US$65,500 in fees and US$89,670 in stock awards. When he resigned he personally held 20,400 Equity One shares.[26][27] Equity One's January 2016 filing said his resignation followed the end of the nomination right and "is not due to any disagreement" with the company.[10]
  • Prozone Intu Properties Limited (India): non-executive director during his time at Intu, unpaid.[2]
  • Marlowe Investments (Kent) Limited and Ferensway Limited: director since April 1, 2000. Intu's 2018 report described Marlowe as a private company "which relates to his family affairs", paying him a £5,000 fee in 2018.[2][23][24]
  • Fibre Real Estate Limited: director from December 23, 2020; the company has since been dissolved.[22]

Personal life

Fischel has kept a low public profile, and little about his private life has been published. Intu's 2018 annual report said his directorship of Marlowe Investments (Kent) related to his family affairs, did not take much of his time and did not conflict with his role at Intu.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 <ref>"David Andrew FISCHEL: appointments".Companies House.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 <ref>"Annual report 2018".Intu Properties plc.February 20, 2019.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 <ref>"Proposed demerger of Capital & Counties".Liberty International PLC.March 9, 2010.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 <ref>"Fischel to step down from intu".Retail Destination.July 27, 2018.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 <ref>"Shopping centres sold in £3.4bn deal".December 6, 2017.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 <ref>Jahshan, Elias."Intu shares slump as CEO David Fischel resigns".July 26, 2018.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 <ref>"Withdrawal of possible offer and corporate update".Intu Properties plc.November 29, 2018.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 <ref>"intu appoints Matthew Roberts as Chief Executive".CRE Herald.April 5, 2019.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 <ref>"Shopping centre giant Intu enters administration".June 26, 2020.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 <ref>"Equity One, Inc. Form 8-K".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.January 19, 2016.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 <ref>"Equity One, Inc. definitive proxy statement (Schedule 14A)".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.March 23, 2011.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  12. ↑ <ref>"Equity One, Inc. definitive proxy statement (Schedule 14A)".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.March 27, 2015.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 <ref>"Annual report 2019".Intu Properties plc.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 <ref>"Annual Report 2001".Liberty International PLC.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  15. ↑ 15.00 15.01 15.02 15.03 15.04 15.05 15.06 15.07 15.08 15.09 15.10 <ref>"Annual Report 2008".Liberty International PLC.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 <ref>"Annual Report 2007".Liberty International PLC.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 <ref>"Simon Property Group: announcement of no intention to make a firm offer; CSC continues to recommend revised Trafford Centre acquisition".Capital Shopping Centres Group PLC.January 11, 2011.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 <ref>"Interim results 30 June 2018".Intu Properties plc.July 26, 2018.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 <ref>"Bullring owner Hammerson pulls back from Intu takeover".April 18, 2018.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 <ref>"intu annual results 2018".Intu Properties plc.February 20, 2019.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  21. ↑ <ref>"Trafford Centre and Lakeside owner warns it could go bust after £2bn loss".March 12, 2020.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 <ref>"David Andrew FISCHEL: appointments (Fibre Real Estate Limited)".Companies House.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 <ref>"FERENSWAY LIMITED: people".Companies House.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 <ref>"MARLOWE INVESTMENTS (KENT) LIMITED: people".Companies House.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  25. ↑ <ref>"Regency Centers Corporation Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1: Equity One, Inc. consolidated financial statements".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.January 17, 2017.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  26. ↑ <ref>"Equity One, Inc. definitive proxy statement (Schedule 14A)".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.April 1, 2016.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
  27. ↑ <ref>"Schedule 13D: Equity One, Inc. (filed by Intu Properties plc and Liberty International Holdings Limited)".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.January 22, 2016.Retrieved October 29, 2026.</ref>
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