Shares in Centro Properties Group, the shopping centre owner facing a US$3.4 billion ($5 billion) debt extension this month, rallied after the company sold malls and other assets in Australia and New Zealand for A$157.5 million ($189.23 million).
It has sold shopping centres in Queensland and Auckland andCentro Retail Group, the company's listed investment trust, had entered an unconditional contract to sell a mall in Christchurch, Centro said yesterday.
The sales come after a private equity group this week pulled out of a US$714 million deal to buy some of Centro's United States shopping centres, sparking a rout that dropped the company's share price to a record low of A5.7c on Tuesday.
Centro shares rose 17 per cent to A9c in Sydney yesterday.
Centro Properties, which owns and manages more than A$24 billion of shopping malls stretching from Yonkers, New York, to Perth, Western Australia, has plunged more than 98 per cent since December 17, when the company said it was struggling to repay debt.
That has slashed its market value to less than A$75 million, from a peak of A$8.5 billion in May last year.
Centro sold a shopping centre in Southport, Queensland, for A$68 million, a 9.9 per cent discount to its book value at June 30.
The Meadowlands mall in Auckland and the Barringtons shopping centre in Christchurch were being sold at a combined 1 per cent discount to book value, Centro said.
The mall operator in May won a reprieve until the end of this month on US$1.1 billion owed to US lenders.
It also gained an extension until December 15 on A$2.3 billion owed to Australian creditors and US$450 million owed to US noteholders.
The second extension relies on Centro satisfying US lenders by the end of this month.
