Liberty International, the shopping centre owner, said retailer failures were starting to have an impact on its business as it wrote down the value of its property by a further £344m in the third quarter.

Liberty, owner of retail centres such as Lakeside, Thurrock, the MetroCentre at Gateshead and Covent Garden in London, reported that £1.08bn was wiped from its portfolio in the nine months to September as the wider property market went through its worst cyclical downturn since the early 1990s.

Net asset value per share stood at 975p at the end of September, down from £12.64 at the start of the year and from £10.95 at the end of June. The results were slightly worse than analyst expectations, though they beat the wider industry benchmark in the period. The shares yesterday fell 25p to 733p.

David Fischel, chief executive, said the likelihood of retailer failures in the first quarter of next year was 'a matter of considerable importance'.

Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, The Times