Lowy family selling $815m stake in Scentre Group

Steven Lowy, Sir Frank Lowy, Peter Lowy and David Lowy. Picture: Hollie Adams

The Lowy family is selling its $815m stake in Westfield shopping centre owner Scentre Group.

The stake comprises 3.9 per cent of the company’s stock, with 206.1 million shares divested, according to a term sheet sent to investors, in what marks the final exit of the Westfield founding family from the iconic shopping mall owner.

Investment bank UBS is working on the transaction.

Shares are being sold at $3.956, a 1.03 per cent discount to the last closing price of $4.01.

The company was created in June 2014 when the Westfield Group separated its American and European businesses from its operations in Australia and New Zealand.

It remained listed as a shopping centre portfolio that includes investment interests in 41 shopping centres across Australia and New Zealand.

The international arm, named Westfield Corporation, was sold last year while the Australian and New Zealand operations were renamed Scentre.

In August when the local Westfield owner announced full-year earnings, the group reported it was on track to deliver funds-from-operations growth of 3 per cent, although once its recent sales of Westfield Burwood and the towers above and around Westfield Sydney are accounted for, this comes back to 0.7 per cent.

Westfield centres account for more than 7 per cent of all retail sales in Australia and the group has been at the retail forefront in remixing its portfolio to meet demands for leisure-focused customers and to deal with the threat posed by e-commerce.

In April, the Lowy family completed its exit from the boardroom of the famed Westfield empire, with Steven Lowy stepping down as a director of Scentre Group, which owns the local Westfield shopping centres, capping more than three decades of involvement.

The billionaire family, led by Sir Frank Lowy, took Westfield from humble beginnings in Sydney, with Steven playing a key role from 1988, including in its offshore expansion and corporate plays that eventually resulted in the sale of the international division to French group Unibail-Rodamco for $32bn in 2017.

Steven Lowy said in April he planned to devote more time to the Lowy family’s expanding private investments and philanthropic activities.

He said he was “very active” in the family’s investment business and it was “evolving” after being led by his brother David, to now include himself, Peter Lowy and Sir Frank.

The high-powered group is evolving the Lowy Family Group into a “much bigger business”, he said.