Shareholders of Australian shopping center manager Westfield Holdings Ltd voted overwhelmingly in favor of a merger yesterday that would make it the largest retail property group in the world, as founder Frank Lowy dismissed fears it could shift headquarters to the US.
The merger will combine three companies -- Westfield Holdings, Westfield Trust and Westfield America Trust -- with a market capitalization of A$27 billion (US$19 billion).
Executive chairman Lowy told shareholders in Sydney yesterday that the merger into a new Westfield Group will be completed by late next month.
PHOTO: AFP
Westfield has property assets and interests in 123 shopping centers with 19,500 retailers in Australia, New Zealand, the US and Britain.
The merger would give Westfield the scale to pursue its global ambitions, Lowy said.
Lowy said the new group would list on the Australian stock market, not Wall Street. He was responding to questions about whether Westfield Group would follow Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, which plans to list on Wall Street to broaden its investor base.
Lowy said the new 0company would be managed and based in Australia.
"It is quite difficult to run such a global organization from Australia, but we are doing it because we want to be here," Lowy said. "Conditions will have to be very substantially changed for us to make a move [overseas]."
News Corp has said it wants to move to New York in a bid to boost its share price and gain easier access to capital but Lowy said Australia was large enough to support Westfield.
"We have no intentions and we hope it will not be necessary; we hope the Australian investment community will be able to support us, which they have so far," Lowy said.
He refused to rule out the possibility of a dual listing in Australia and another country, as some Australian Stock Exchange-listed companies such as Brambles and BHP Billiton have already done.
Lowy, who built up his shopping mall empire from a small Sydney shop nearly 50 years ago, said the merger was a watershed for Westfield.
"This is an historic day for Westfield and just a little bit nostalgic for me," he told shareholders.
The Lowy family would continue to manage the business, he said, although its share would drop from 25 percent to about 12 percent after the merger.
"I am told that as long as we do a good job, we will be able to manage this company," he said.
Westfield now requires court approval for the merger, which is expected to become effective on July 2.
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