asset sales, page-12

I think I may have posted some numbers previously about the group leverage situation post asset sales. For the fundamentalists among you (financial, not religious) here it is again:

In a nutshell, by our calculations if CAWF goes for book, CAF for 10% under book, MCS 38,39 & 40 are sold for 10% under book, at least two periods of divvies are retained (last Dec and this Jun) and CER sells down the properties it owns with CAWF, we will see a drop in the gearing to between 53% and 57%.

This excludes any outside equity interest (if indeed Centro sees the need to), which would bring the gearing down to sub 50% depending on the amounts involved.

On the downside, this does not include any property revals for the half but on the upside it is based on a reduced services business valuation and excludes any other income for the half (and subsequent periods) which is also used to pay down debt. There is also a 'disposal pool' of US assets that are available for sale in the normal course of business which are not included either.

Whilst the net result is a smaller company, if Centro can retain management rights over the sold properties, then as I said earlier, it's icing on the cake.

If LVR goes sub 50% and we can quarantine the impact of litigation, Centro will either be back on two feet by next year or be taken over sooner.

The other benefit of a takeover (which for the record, I really don't want to go ahead) that everyone seems to be missing is that by renaming properties and funds, it would remove the stigma and reputational issues now associated with the 'Centro' brand.

Current CNP market cap is $300m, you don't have to be a genius to do the maths on this one.