Westfield Corporation sold to French Company

[giantsfan2016]

FROM MY RECORDJOURNAL.COM

French property company acquires Westfield Corporation, owner of Westfield Meriden mall, in nearly $16 billion deal

European property company Unibail-Rodamco acquired Westfield Corporation, an Australian company which owns shopping malls throughout the country, including the Westfield Meriden mall, in a $15.7 billion deal Tuesday.

“The acquisition of Westfield is a natural extension of Unibail-Rodamco’s strategy of concentration, differentiation and innovation,” Christophe Cuvillier, the Unibail-Rodamco chief executive, said in a news release. “It adds a number of new attractive retail markets in London and the wealthiest catchment areas in the United States.”

Westfield Coporation also operates the Westfield Trumbull mall.

Westfield was built by Frank Lowy, the billionaire shopping center tycoon who started with one shopping center outside of Sydney in 1959. It now includes premier shopping malls in California, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and London, as well as shopping areas at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of next year. The combined company would be based in Paris and the Netherlands, with regional headquarters in Los Angeles and London.

Like many in the shopping mall business, Westfield has struggled with the emergence of online retailers like Amazon. The company has focused on marquee properties that can still draw shoppers, rather than regional malls that are more susceptible to online competition. Its shares picked up steam in the second half of this year but are still down by roughly one-fifth since the middle of last year.

Under the terms of the deal, Westfield investors would receive 10.01 Australian dollars, or about $7.50, in cash and stock for each of their shares, representing a nearly 18 percent premium to the company’s closing price on Monday.