Shopping-Mall Operator Westfield Valued at $15.7 Billion in Takeover Offer
12 December 2017 - 6:16PM
Dow Jones News
By Mike Cherney
SYDNEY-- Westfield Corp., the Australia-based company that
operates U.S. shopping malls including at the World Trade Center in
New York, said Tuesday it has agreed to a takeover by European
property company Unibail-Rodamco valuing it at 20.8 billion
Australian dollars (US$15.7 billion).
The deal, which would offer Westfield shareholders a combination
of cash and shares in Unibail-Rodamco, values Westfield shares at
US$7.55 each, or A$10.01, representing a nearly 18% premium to
Westfield's most recent share price of A$8.50. Trading in Westfield
shares was halted before the market opened on Tuesday, pending news
of the deal.
The transaction would create a global operator and developer of
flagship shopping centers spanning the U.S. and Europe, with a
gross market value of US$72.2 billion. Unibail-Rodamco Chief
Executive Christophe Cuvillier will run the merged group.
For Westfield Chairman Frank Lowy, the deal represents the
culmination of a decadeslong career in shopping malls that began
when he opened a deli in a western Sydney suburb. Mr. Lowy, born in
1930 in Czechoslovakia, survived the Holocaust and fought in the
Israeli war of independence before moving to Australia.
His sons, Peter Lowy and Steven Lowy, are co-chief executives of
Westfield, which spun off its Australian and New Zealand assets in
2014 into Scentre Group. Steven Lowy serves on Scentre's board.
Westfield in recent years has focused on flagship shopping
centers, and sold some smaller regional centers, as an increase in
online shopping challenged mall operators.
Write to Mike Cherney at mike.cherney@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 12, 2017 02:01 ET (07:01 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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