Negative equity would require a further 27% devaluation across...

Negative equity would require a further 27% devaluation across the board. I can't see the downturn being that bad. Any recession in the US is likely to be shallow. The US economy is more diverse and resilient than ever before.

Significant writedowns have already been made in HY08. Rufrano's strategy would have been to insist that revaluations were conservative. Any new CEO walking into a situation like this is going to insist that any turnaround goes on their own report card.

The year to year value in Centro is the operational income. It generates plenty of cash. The management rights for the funds also have significant asset value. The asset valuations will cycle up and down with the commercial property market. That only has an impact if a company is forced into a firesale. It would seem that none of the lenders is stupid enough to do that.