Sir Frank Lowy’s lifetime of work complete with Westfield’s $33 billion sale to Unibail-Rodamco
SHARES in Westfield soared today after Sir Frank Lowy sealed the deal of a lifetime by selling his international shopping centres to a French firm for $33 billion.
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SHARES in Westfield soared today after Sir Frank Lowy sealed the deal of a lifetime by selling his international shopping centres to a French firm for $33 billion.
Westfield shares were placed in a trading halt yesterday ahead of the takeover by shopping centre giant Unibail-Rodamco.
After resuming trade today, they were up 13.9 per cent to $9.685 by noon.
The deal will put almost $3 billion into the Lowy family coffers and could propel Sir Frank up the Australian rich list.
The sale to shopping centre giant Unibail-Rodamco will not affect Australian and New Zealand Westfield shopping centres, which are part of a separate company.
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The deal values the company at almost 20 per cent higher than the share market, in defiance of doomsayers who say retail’s future is online.
The sale was signed just days after the 87-year-old holocaust survivor was knighted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace for his charitable work.
The deal was sealed in London overnight and announced by Sir Frank and son Peter by live video link.
Sir Frank said the day was “the second most important in Westfield history” — the first being when he co-founded the firm in Blacktown in 1960.
“Most of you know the story of our humble beginnings in a little shopping centre in Blacktown which is still there,” he said.
“Who would have thought that 57 years later I would be sitting in snowy London talking to you in Sydney like this? Certainly not me.”
He built the Westfield shopping mall empire into a world brand with sites across the globe including London, Paris and New York.
They will now become part of the European shopping giant’s 104 malls that are worth $US72 billion and attract 1.2 billion visitors a year.
The Paris-based company will now brand its prestige malls across Europe, the UK and US with the familiar red Westfield logo.
“For the assets I have spent my life building I cannot imagine a better home for them than in this new company,” he said.
Sir Frank will retire as Westfield chairman and sons Steven and Peter will retire as co-CEOs of the company. They will, however, advise on the transition of the companies and maintain their investment in them.
“We will move from being executives to being investors,” Sir Frank said, adding he did not expect to have a great deal of spare time as he will join son Peter, who runs the family investments.
It was a day of “mixed emotion” for the 87-year-old retiring chairman who arrived in Australia in 1952 as a refugee.
“I have mixed feelings … when I look back on 57 years it is more than a lifetime of work I have put into this company,” he said.
“I am happy about the decision.”
Steven Lowy said the deal, one of the biggest in Australian business for years, had nothing to do with internet retailers such as Amazon, adding the shopping malls had adapted to cope with any threat.
The Lowy Think Tank founder and Football Federation Australia chairman thanked Australia for the opportunities it gave him to build Westfield into a global brand: “What a privilege it has been to lead this great Australian company.”