It seems that 2011 will be the Year of the Big Deal.
According to The Wall Street Journal, at least six large companies have submitted bids to purchase 600 U.S. shopping centers and 112 international malls from Melbourne, Australia-based Centro Properties Group. buy and sell qatar
Centro owes $18.4 billion on its loans.
According to several sources with knowledge of the situation, the company's creditors are biding their time before pushing the company to file for bankruptcy.
In addition, Centro operates 112 shopping malls in Australia and New Zealand.
Blackstone Group LP of New York, NY is one of the bidders. So far, no information about the bid has been released.
The consortium is led by NRDC Equity Partners LLC of the United States and Lend Lease Corp. of Australia. For all of Centro's holdings, make an offer of $16 billion or more.
For Centro's Australian and New Zealand properties, Tel Aviv-based Gazit Globe Ltd. partnered with Colonial First State Global Asset Management of Sydney, Australia. $7.3 billion was the winning bid.
For Centro's U.S. operations, Gazit's U.S. affiliate Equity One Inc. (EQY: News ) of North Miami Beach, FL, chaired by Chaim Katzman, partnered with Apollo Global Management LLC of New York, NY. Uncertain bids are accepted.
Charter Hall Retail REIT, based in Melbourne, is interested in purchasing only a portion of Centro's Australian and American assets. Unknown bidder.
Former CEO Andrew Scott went on a buying spree that made Centro one of the world's biggest retail landlords, accumulating the company's debt during the boom years. The debt in Centro's US portfolio totals $8.1 billion.
Scott, who was deposed in early 2008, bought New Plan Excel Realty Trust, Kramont Real Estate Trust, and Heritage Property Investment Trust Inc., among others.
Strip malls and other neighborhood shopping centers anchored by grocers or discount stores, such as TJX Cos.' TJ Maxx and Marshalls and Kroger Co., make up Centro's U.S. assets.
Centro's portfolio in the United States was estimated at $9.5 billion at the end of its fiscal year on June 30. One of Centro's U.S. properties is Brooksville Square Shopping Center in Brooksville, Florida.
UBS AG, Moelis & Co., and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. are advising Centro.
In October, the hotel industry in Australia generated mixed results.
STR Global publishes studies. The output of Australia's hotels in October was mixed across the major markets.
Hotel output in terms of occupancy, average daily rate (ADR), and revenue per available room (RevPAR) varied significantly from city to city for the month of October 2011.
In particular, the output of hotels in Brisbane, the major city at the epicenter of the flooding in January 2011, appears to have fared admirably. However, the success of Perth, Western Australia's capital, stands out, with the best results in both real occupancy (84.3%) and average daily rate (ADR) (AUD 199.5).
The market study from STR Global included a variety of secondary cities, two of which had the worst actual results. The southern city of Wollongong in New South Wales had the lowest occupancy (58.7%), while Cairns in Queensland had the lowest ADR (AUD 118.7) and RevPAR (AUD 85.9).
When comparing year-over-year growth in hotel results, Perth came out on top in all three main performance measures. A significant increase in ADR (11.4%) was critical in driving strong RevPAR growth (16.7 percent). Brisbane, like Perth, saw strong growth in ADR (8.0 percent), resulting in a decent rise in RevPAR (10.0 percent). Wollongong saw the greatest drop in RevPAR and ADR due to new supply entering the city (+13.3%), while demand increased 11.3 percent over the same period. The Gold Coast saw the greatest drop in occupancy (-5.8 percent).
"The mixed output across Australia reflects the diversity of markets, each with its own influences and demand factors," STR Global managing director Elizabeth Randall explained. "Overall, it's encouraging to see that, despite increased outbound and decreased inbound tourism, the strong Australian dollar, the floods, and the volcanic ash cloud, RevPAR increased in Australia's major markets."