Simon Property Group chief executive David Simon has moved to pour cold water on speculation his company is pursuing a deal in Australia, possibly with CFS Retail or Westfield.
An apparent sighting of the Simon Property Group’s private jet in Sydney sparked chatter that the retail property king was scouting out a deal, with Westfield, Scentre and CFS Retail at the centre of the gossip.
Yesterday, Mr Simon told the Barclays Global Financial Services Conference in New York that “there is no deal”. “And the press have upgraded my plane — so for that I thank them,” he added.
“We have been known to do some deals here and there, but not in Australia.”
The comments were made during a webcast of the conference. Later during the presentation, Mr Simon added: “We have a lot of liquidity for deals, again, not in Australia.”
Mr Simon added that the company did have plans to expand internationally.
Analysts at Citi also moved to scotch the rumour, with analyst Adrian Dark saying he believed a deal between CFS Retail and Simon Property Group was unlikely.
“Our US REIT team, led by Michael Bilerman, spoke with Simon Property Group CEO David Simon, who said there was no truth to him being in Australia, or a deal for CFS Retail,” Mr Dark said in a note to clients.
This article first appeared in The Australian.