Steven Lowy to step down from Scentre board as Lowy family severs another Westfield link

The last member of the Lowy family remaining on the board of Westfield’s local operations has flagged plans to step down.

Westfield chairman and founder Sir Frank Lowy (second left) with his sons (L-R) Steven, Peter and David. Picture: AAP

The storeyed Lowy family has severed yet another link with the Westfield shopping centre empire that family patriarch Sir Frank Lowy co-founded in 1960, as his son Steven, the last member of the family to remain on the board of local owner Scentre Group, flagged his intention to step down.

Scentre (SCG) is the owner and operator of Westfield in Australia and New Zealand and has interests in 41 centres, with total assets under management of $53.4 billion, and it remains bullish on the outlook for top retail outlets.

But the family has been winding down its involvement with the Westfield empire, with Sir Frank last December engineering the biggest deal in Australian corporate history: the $US24.7 billion ($32bn) sale of Westfield Corporation, that owned the group’s international malls, to French company Unibail-Rodamco.

Steven Lowy, Sir Frank’s third and youngest son behind brothers Peter Lowy and David Lowy, has announced he will retire and not seek re-election as a director of Scentre at the company’s annual general meeting in April 2019. He formally advised the board of his decision at a meeting today, saying he considered it was the right time to step down.

“It has been a privilege to serve on the board of Scentre Group since it was established following the restructure of the Westfield Group in 2014”, Mr Lowy said.

Scentre chairman Brian Schwartz said that Steven had “brought a unique perspective to the board with his unmatched knowledge of the global retail property industry”.

With brother Peter, Steven was co-chief executive of the Westfield Corporation, ahead of its sale to Unibail-Rodamco, running the global business from his Sydney base.

“It is not easy to leave a position in a business that has been such a large part of my life for over 30 years. I do so knowing that Scentre Group is in great hands and is well positioned for further growth,” Mr Lowy said.

In 2013, the Lowy family sold its 7.1 per cent stake in the Westfield Retail Trust, that owned Australian malls, for about $665 million.

The Lowy Family Group has a near 4 per cent stake in Scentre but Mr Lowy said that remains intact since its establishment in 2014 and was “independent from his position on the board.”

Steven Lowy remains as chairman of the OneMarket technology business that was spun off as part of the sale to the French group.

In August, he said he would end more than 50 years of his family’s involvement with soccer, revealing he would end his tenure as chairman of Football Federation Australia.

Mr Lowy, who took over at the FFA from billionaire father in 2015, said in August he would not renominate for the position, blaming political infighting for his decision as the internecine war engulfing soccer rages on.

Since the Westfield sale, the Lowy family has flagged a series of investments in fast moving technology groups and venture capital plays.