The Australian Retirement Trust will acquire a near 20% stake in Scentre Group\u2019s flagship Westfield Sydney shopping mall for A$864 million, the shopping centre owner said on Tuesday. The transaction values the property in line with its June 2025 book value and reflects continued institutional interest in prime retail assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Westfield Sydney, located in the central business district, is home to around 270 local and international premium retail brands and attracts more than 33 million visitors each year, underscoring its position as one of Australia\u2019s most prominent shopping destinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The deal follows Scentre Group\u2019s earlier sale of a combined 50% stake in Brisbane\u2019s Westfield Chermside to property developer Dexus for A$1.3 billion over the course of this year. Together, the transactions highlight Scentre\u2019s strategy of recycling capital from mature retail assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the sale to Australian Retirement Trust, Scentre\u2019s net investment in Westfield Sydney will stand at approximately A$900 million. Its remaining 80.1% stake is valued at about A$3.5 billion, representing roughly a fourfold increase since the group acquired the asset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scentre Group shares were largely unchanged at A$4.205 in early trading, slightly underperforming the broader ASX 200 index, which was up around 1% at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Management said the partial divestment frees up capital and supports the group\u2019s longer-term push to transform parts of its extensive land bank into large-scale residential developments. Scentre controls around 670 hectares of land, which it aims to use to deliver more than 5,000 new homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of August, the company had secured rezoning approvals for Westfield Hornsby in Sydney and Westfield Belconnen in Canberra. These approvals allow for the construction of more than 4,000 residential units in total, marking a significant step in the group\u2019s diversification beyond traditional retail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have the potential to make a significant contribution to housing supply at our locations across Australia and New Zealand,\u201d Scentre said in its 2024 annual report, reinforcing its ambition to play a broader role in addressing housing demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Transaction values mall at A$4.3 billion The Australian Retirement Trust will acquire a near 20% stake in Scentre Group\u2019s flagship Westfield Sydney shopping mall for A$864 million, the shopping centre owner said on Tuesday. The transaction values the property in line with its June 2025 book value and reflects continued institutional interest in prime retail […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10772,"featured_media":13155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3199],"class_list":{"0":"post-13154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-finance","8":"tag-h"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetimesfinancial.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetimesfinancial.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetimesfinancial.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetimesfinancial.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10772"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetimesfinancial.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thetimesfinancial.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13156,"href":"https:\/\/thetimesfinancial.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13154\/revisions\/13156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetimesfinancial.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetimesfinancial.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetimesfinancial.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetimesfinancial.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}