Centro Halts Share Trades as A$6.6 Billion Debt Deadline Looms
By Laura Cochrane
May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Centro Properties Group, the Australian owner of more than 650 U.S. malls, halted trading in its shares as the company faces a deadline today to extend as much as A$6.6 billion ($6.3 billion) in debt.
The company's Centro Retail Group unit also halted share trades, Melbourne-based Centro Properties said today in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.
Australian lenders and U.S. noteholders owed A$2.8 billion between them on April 30 granted Melbourne-based Centro another week to renegotiate debt. U.S. and European banks in February gave Centro until the end of September to refinance loans owed them, provided other creditors granted a similar extension.
Centro has been trying for more than four months to persuade investors and lenders it should retain a collection of malls that stretches from Perth, Western Australia to Yonkers, New York. About 62 percent of Centro's assets are in the U.S. where its properties lost 8.8 percent of their value in the six months to Dec. 31 amid slowing retail sales and a potential recession.
The company posted a record A$1.1 billion net loss for the six months to Dec. 31, compared with net income of A$157.3 million a year earlier. The company wrote down A$578 million on U.S.-based New Plan Excel Realty Trust, purchased last year for $5.2 billion in the biggest U.S. acquisition by an Australian real estate investment trust.
Centro's lenders include Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., National Australia Bank Ltd., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and BNP Paribas.
To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Cochrane in Melbourne at lcochrane3bloomberg.net
Last Updated: May 6, 2008 20:03 EDT
CNP Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
