Skip to main content
Business
The Web    CNN.com     
Powered by
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
SERVICES
 
 
 
SEARCH
Web CNN.com
powered by Yahoo!

Property trust Westfield lifts result

Developer Frank Lowy set up Westfield in Australia in 1960
Developer Frank Lowy set up Westfield in Australia in 1960

   Story Tools

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Australia's largest listed property trust, Westfield Trust, has lifted net profit for 2002 by 8.0 percent to Aust. $475.8 million ($278 million).

Westfield Trust managing director Steven Lowy said the result was in line with expectations.

Shares in the company closed 0.29 percent higher Tuesday at A$3.47. The broader Australian market, measured by the S&P/ASX200, rose about 0.14 percent.

Westfield Trust, which has 41 properties in Australia and New Zealand, is part of the giant Westfield Holdings group, one of the biggest shopping center developers in the world.

Westfield Holdings, founded by billionaire entrepreneur Frank Lowy in 1960, has about $18 billion of assets under management in 109 shopping centers in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the U.K.

U.S. purchase

Despite a tough retail market, Westfield was able to lift profit
Despite a tough retail market, Westfield was able to lift profit

In December it lifted its portfolio of U.S. properties to 63, paying $62 million to buy the 42-store Southgate Plaza in Florida. (Full story)

Last month, Westfield America Inc. joined Simon Property Group in a $4 billion hostile bid for rival shopping center group Taubman Centers. That offer, which expires on February 14, has been resisted by the Taubman board.

Westfield said Tuesday that retail sales in the trust's 29 Australian centers reached A$9 billion for the 2002 year, up 6.2 percent over 2001 and an increase of 4.8 percent on a comparable basis.

In its 12 New Zealand centers, retail sales rose 3.7 percent to NZ$1.5 billion for the year, and grew 2.6 percent on a comparable basis.

Westfield said work on its A$680 million Bondi Junction retail development in Sydney is on schedule for opening in 2004.

In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange Tuesday, Westfield said it expected after-tax profit and distribution per unit to increase during 2003.

World Trade Center

Outside Australia and New Zealand, the Westfield group is best known for its Westfield America Trust, which is locked in a legal battle over insurance cover related to the September 2001 terror attack on the World Trade Center in New York.

Westfield had signed a lease over the retail section of the center two months before the attack.

Another U.S. acquisition that was initially blocked by legal action was settled in May last year, when Westfield America Trust bought 14 shopping centers from Rodamco North America for about $2.7 billion.

In November in the U.K., Westfield won planning consent from Nottingham City Council for a £400 million ($640 million) redevelopment of the Broadmarsh Centre there.


Story Tools
Subscribe to Time for $1.99 cover
Top Stories
Nikkei rebounds to above 10,000
Top Stories
CNN/Money: Security alert issued for 40 million credit cards
 
 
 
 

International Edition
CNN TV CNN International Headline News Transcripts Advertise With Us About Us
SEARCH
   The Web    CNN.com     
Powered by
© 2005 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us.
external link
All external sites will open in a new browser.
CNN.com does not endorse external sites.
 Premium content icon Denotes premium content.
Add RSS headlines.