David Jones appears to be in breach of more than a dozen leases, all signed with ASX-listed Scentre, after the operator of the local Westfield malls baulked at allowing the retailer’s new private equity owners to take over as a counterparty from South Africa’s Woolworths Holdings.

David Jones, which was acquired by Anchorage Capital Partners in a deal that closed last week, has 19 stores in Westfield shopping centres – some six per cent of the landlord’s entire lettable area. Anchorage landed the $100 million deal just before Christmas, with ownership changing last month. But the transaction closed at a rather awkward time after the collapse of another Anchorage-owned company, Scott’s Refrigerated Storage.