Scentre Group has agreed to sell a minority stake in five shopping malls in New Zealand to Singapore state investment firms GIC, for $NZ1.04 billion ($A940 million).
Scentre -- the company created from the break-up of billionaire Frank Lowy's Westfield Group empire to house shopping malls in Australia and New Zealand -- said the joint venture with GIC would have a gross value of $NZ2.10bn ($A1.98bn). Scentre will retain a 51 per cent stake in the each of the malls, with the remainder held by GIC.
Westfield brand malls in the Auckland suburbs of Albany, Manukau, Newmarket and St. Lukes are included in the sale, Scentre said. The Westfield Riccarton mall in Christchurch, New Zealand's second-largest city, is also being sold.
Scentre said it would initially use proceeds from the sale to repay debt. This would help to reduce Scentre's gearing -- a measure of a company's debts relative to equity -- to 35.5 per cent from 37.6 per cent at the end of June.
Singapore's GIC to take stake in five malls under joint venture agreement.
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