Buying time .?.?. and Centro sets the pulses racing PUBLISHED: 18 hours 3 MINUTES AGO | UPDATE: 11 hours 14 MINUTES AGO PUBLISHED: 08 Dec 2011 PRINT EDITION: 08 Dec 2011 Edited by Sarah Thompson, Christine Lacy and Stephen Shore (source: www.afr.com street talk)
Up and down supermarket aisles at shopping centres around the country, shoppers are starting to stock up for their Christmas celebrations.
More than a few of those malls sit in the portfolio of Centro, which relaunched on the board this week after four long years dicing with debt.
The restructure puts $4.4 billion worth of shopping centres on one balance sheet and gives the new trust, Centro Retail Australia, management of another $2.6 billion of retail assets held in its syndicates.
They are good assets, with lower gearing, well-leased and bursting with non-discretionary shoppers
So it’s no wonder investment bankers are already out on the hustings pushing the merits of a bit more corporate action.
It would be hard not to.
Analysts have noted this week that merger and acquisition is a distinct possibility, and the list of potential candidates is pretty well known.
Any takeover would have to be done with joint venture partners such as sovereign wealth funds and big unlisted parties. Lend Lease has acknowledged it is aware of interest in Centro from wholesale investors.
The Australian developer and fund manager has good relations with investors such as GIC and the Future Fund.
Westfield Retail Trust is another logical buyer, as is Stockland.
DEXUS can also be counted among the candidates, given it will soon be headed by Darren Steinberg, ex-Colonial and a retail guru who was courted assiduously by Centro to run its new trust.
Investment bankers are well-briefed on the Centro empire, old and new. Moelis & Co devised the grand plan that brought the pieces of the puzzle together. UBS advised the former Centro Retail Trust, and pushed a hard bargain in the successful restructure.
Other bankers took a look at Centro in the earlier phase of its restructure last year.
All of that interest is making it harder for Centro to hire a new chief executive, who may have a short-lived tenure.
While fingers have pointed at Denis Hickey, it is said there is a lot of liking among the institutional investors for the internal candidate, Mark Wilson, who knows the business and is a safe pair of hands. (source: www.afr.com street talk)
I bought some recently in a view to recover loss from CNP.
Regards,
CRF Price at posting:
$1.81 Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
