investors make joint bid for centro, page-3

Also the below on bloomberg...



Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Centro Properties Group, the Australian shopping-mall owner that ceded control to creditors in 2008, said a number of parties have approached it with expressions of interest in its businesses and assets.

Centro will start to evaluate these expressions of interest, the company said in a statement to the stock exchange today. The company is seeking buyers for more than A$4 billion ($4 billion) of assets, said a person with knowledge of the matter last week.

?The significant interest in Centro?s businesses over recent months has been encouraging,? Centro Chairman, Paul Cooper, said in the statement today.

Centro has set a Dec. 25 deadline for indicative bids for more than 40 properties, including the Galleria in Perth and The Glen in Melbourne, said the person, who declined to be identified because the plans aren?t public. Prospective buyers will be given access to financial information on the assets in the next few weeks, the person said last week.

Centro, which manages an A$18.6 billion collection of 712 shopping centers in Australia, New Zealand and the U.S., said in July it was in talks with lenders about debt due next year. The company had A$18.4 billion of debt as of June 30, company filings show, as the value of its properties fell and debt costs soared following a A$9 billion buying spree in 2006 and 2007.

Australia?s 16 listed property trusts reported combined losses of A$19.5 billion and writedowns of A$21.7 billion in the year to June 30, 2009, after their strategy of borrowing to fund overseas investments backfired when property values tumbled and borrowing costs spiked during the credit crunch.

Centro shares added 3.1 percent to 16.5 Australian cents at 12:30 p.m. in Sydney. The stock has lost more than A$6 billion in market value in the past three years.

To contact the reporter on this story: Victoria Batchelor in Sydney at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Victoria Richards at [email protected]