'Our team is focused on our strategy of creating the places more people choose to come, more often, for longer.
'So far this year, we have welcomed 391 million customer visits, up 16.7% on the same period last year, and we expect to achieve approximately 500 million visits this year.
'Our business partners achieved
'On a comparable basis, our business partners have achieved 14.8% more sales in the 3rd quarter compared to the same period in 2019, and for the 9-month period they have achieved 11.9% more than in 2019.
'Our 42
'Our business partners have seen their sales growth accelerate in the 3rd quarter compared to the first 6 months of this year.'
Demand from businesses is strong with portfolio occupancy at 98.8%, up 30bps from a year ago.
The Group has completed 2,464 lease deals so far this year, including 1,547 renewals and 917 new merchants. Over 200 new brands have been introduced into the portfolio so far this year.
During the 3rd quarter,
Over
The Group's
Good progress continues to be made on the Group's strategic customer initiatives including our membership program which now exceeds 2.9 million members, an increase of 200,000 during the quarter.
In September, we announced the 2022 recipients of our flagship community grant and recognition program, Local Heroes. Since our program was established in 2018 we have awarded
In October, GRESB acknowledged the Group's ESG disclosure and performance with Global Sector Leader Status and a GRESB 5-star rating in the 2022 Real Estate Assessment. Sustainalytics reaffirmed the Group's rating in the top 1% of more than 14,000 companies globally.
CEO
Subject to no material change in conditions, the Group reconfirms it expects FFO to be above
Distributions are expected to be at least
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