Westfield, Retail Trust in Talks With AMP on Shopping Mall Swap

Westfield Group (WDC) and Westfield Retail Trust said they are in talks with AMP Ltd. (AMP) after the Australian newspaper reported the companies plan to divide up some A$6 billion ($6.3 billion) of jointly-held assets.

The groups are in confidential negotiations regarding a proposed asset reallocation of shopping center interests, the two property trusts said in separate statements to the Australian stock exchange today. No binding arrangements have been reached, they said.

The assets include at least six of Australia’s largest shopping centers, the Australian newspaper said Aug. 11, citing unidentified sources. AMP will acquire the stakes it doesn’t already own in the Macquarie Centre in Sydney, Pacific Fair on the Gold Coast and Booragoon in Perth. Westfield and the retail trust it manages will take over full ownership of Warringah Mall in Sydney, Knox City in Melbourne and Mount Gravatt in Brisbane, the newspaper said.

AMP has a 21 percent interest in the 25 Australian and New Zealand shopping malls that Westfield Group and Westfield Retail Trust (WRT) own with outside partners, according to a regulatory filing in February by the retail trust.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nichola Saminather in Sydney at nsaminather1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andreea Papuc at apapuc1@bloomberg.net