wdc in last nights 4 corners, page-11

spot on thurman. Lowry is very well-connected.

From latest Eureka report.

Westfield Group. Westfield is in very good shape. It raised money last year before the credit crunch really started to hit home, so its balance sheet is in good shape and if you look at its share price, it’s probably fallen the least of any of the major financial stocks, and certainly of the real estate groups.

Now, one of its biggest competitors in the US is a company called General Growth Properties, and it’s in a bit of trouble, so it looks like Westfield and perhaps another property group is going to look to break that up.

The one caveat I just have on Westfield is that it attracts a lot of buying because it’s such a massive part of the index, but people need to be careful because it’s heavily exposed to shopping malls in the US. That’s what it does, just as it does here in Australia.

There was something on television last week about a mall in the US with just one car in the car park. The US consumer is going to be spending less and less over the next six to 12 months, and I reckon a lot of retail businesses could go out of business. It’s one thing for Westfield to say that it’s still holding its rents up, but if its tenants just go out of business, it won’t necessarily be able to replace them at the same rate of rent.

So I wonder with whether Westfield’s got some potential issues, I am sure will be a pretty substantial retail slowdown in the United States. The trading in the lead-up to Christmas will be absolutely crucial as to how they’re going.