Westfield Group is taking steps to sell seven of the malls it owns in the United States to US investment firm Starwood Capital Group for more than $US1 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Such a move, which remains in negotiations and not yet in final stages, would come as the latest in an effort to downsize and sell non-core malls that has seen Westfield offload about $15 billion worth of shopping mall stakes since 2010.
A deal with Starwood would also come as a deal between two sides familiar with one another. Westfield sold majority stakes in seven other US properties to Starwood in 2012 for over $US1 billion.
Recently, Goldman Sachs estimated that Westfield intends to sell $US1.2 billion worth of non-core assets.
“As net operating income growth picks up in the US, and as funding costs across the Pacific remain very low, the prospects of getting close to book are improving,” Goldman Sachs analyst Rob Stanton wrote.
In a separate report, The Australian Financial Review added that JPMorgan estimates that Westfield could also reduce its portfolio of malls in Australia and New Zealand to 25 per cent in a move that could net about $5 billion.