Westfield gets restructure gets go-ahead

Westfield's shareholders are set to approve a $70 billion restructure of the company. Source: AAP

WESTFIELD will leave its Australian shopping centres behind in search of growth opportunities overseas after winning a tough shareholder battle over its $70 billion restructure.

THE restructure got the green light on Friday after shareholders in Westfield Retail Trust, which owns half of the shopping centre giant's Australian and New Zealand assets voted in favour of the controversial plan.

Westfield Group will be split in two from June 25, pending final approval from the NSW Supreme Court, with the new Westfield Corporation taking on the company's international business and the Australian and New Zealand shopping centres transferred to a new company called Scentre.Both companies will be chaired by Westfield founder Frank Lowy and the Lowy family will maintain holdings in both businesses.But Australian shoppers won't notice any difference, with the Westfield brand to be maintained under Scentre Group.The move gives Westfield greater freedom to focus solely on growth opportunities overseas, without the distraction of its Australian shopping centre business, which has little room left to expand."The strategy of Westfield Corporation is to own, develop and operate iconic shopping centres in some of the world's great cities," co-chief executive Steven Lowy told reporters on Friday.That includes the massive Westfield World Trade Centre development, a planned development in Milan which the company is billing as "the best shopping centre in Europe" and major centres in the UK.But the move almost didn't go ahead.Westfield Group shareholders overwhelmingly backed the move at a meeting last month, but WRT investors looked set to vote down the proposal, with only 74.1 per cent of proxy votes cast in favour of the restructure.On Friday, the total vote was 76 per cent in favour.A significant minority of shareholders in WRT, which was itself spun off from Westfield in 2010, opposed the move on the grounds it would create a higher risk business with more debt than the passive property trust they bought into.Australian Shareholders Association spokesman Stephen Mayne said Westfield had run a well orchestrated campaign to win over institutional investors in the past few weeks."Ultimately they ran a very successful lobbying campaign against those institutions that voted against it or didn't vote," he told AAP."The question is, who flipped?"Steven Lowy downplayed concerns about debt levels, noting credit ratings agencies S&P and Moody's had already given Scentre A ratings."We felt that debate was well overplayed," he said on Friday.Fellow co-chief executive Peter Lowy said Westfield Corp would maintain its listing on the Australian stock exchange but is looking at the possibility of a dual listing overseas.

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