Superannuation heavyweight UniSuper has ploughed more than $200 million into Westfield’s newly restructured Australian business Scentre Group in what some say is a vote of confidence for the mall owner.
John Pearce, chief investment officer of the $41 billion industry super fund, confirmed that the fund had increased its stake in the vehicle despite being opposed to the terms of the deal put forward by the Lowy family to create Scentre.
“It’s a reinvestment of the capital distribution we received from our WRT (Westfield Retail Trust) shares back into Scentre,” said Mr Pearce, who is currently in the US.
UniSuper is now the largest shareholder on Scentre’s register with 5.53 per cent, or 294 million shares.
Before the reinvestment, UniSuper owned a little over 4 per cent in Scentre and the Lowy family was the largest holder with 4.2 per cent of shares. Ahead of Westfield’s controversial restructure deal, UniSuper held 8.49 per cent in WRT, which was equivalent to about $761m.
WRT investors received 918 Scentre shares for every $1000 worth of shares they owned in WRT. They also received $285.30 for every $1000 worth of WRT shares they owned — or about $217m in UniSuper’s case.
UniSuper voted against the restructure, which was passed with the backing of 76 per cent of votes cast, just over the 75 per cent vote required.
UniSuper’s shares purchase came as Moelis analysts Edward Day and Simon Scott started coverage of Scentre yesterday with a buy rating.
They said now that the Westfield restructure was complete, they expected a period of large trading flows in both Scentre and Westfield Corporation. They have a 12-month target of $3.59, against yesterday’s $3.20 close.