Centro to Sell US Portfolio to Blackstone for $9.4 Billion
Bloomberg reports: In the days before debt was hard to come by, when real estate values were nearing historic highs, Australia-based Centro Properties Group was on a buying spree in the US, purchasing hundreds of shopping malls across the country, as the firm was betting that values would continue to rise. By the winter of 2009, the firm found itself with billions in outstanding loans on properties that were under-performing, as US consumers recoiled from discretionary spending. It was at that point Centro decided to put a significant portion of its US portfolio on the market, and nearly two years later, it seems they found a buyer.
Blackstone Group, who most recently led a consortium of firms in purchasing the troubled Extended Stay portfolio of hotels for $3.9 billion, will reportedly purchase a 588-pproperty portfolio of Centro’s mall holdings for $9.4 billion. It would be Blackstone’s largest purchase since it acquired Hilton Hotels in 2007. The deal comes just as commercial real estate values have begun to rise off their cyclical lows, and defaults on commercial real estate-backed mortgages reaches a relative plateau. According to Real Capital Analytics, “defaults on U.S. commercial real estate mortgages held by U.S. banks fell in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, the first decline in almost five years.”
Bloomberg reported in the same article that Centro had A$16.0 billion of debt on its balance sheet as of December 31, 2010. The firm projected at that time that A$3.1 billion of its debt would be coming due over the course of 2011. The sale to Blackstone will likely be announced before the end of this week, February 28, 2011.
View the full article on Bloomberg: Centro to Sell US Portfolio to Blackstone for $9.4 Billion
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Posted by: Nina Turner