Westfield has bought two shopping centres in Miami, Florida, for $400m (£197m) and has agreed to reduce its exposure to four shopping centres in St Louis, Missouri, for around $1bn (£490m)
It has bought the Broward Mall in Plantation and Westland Mall in Hialeah. The 1m sq ft Broward Mall is near Ft. Lauderdale and the 820,000 sq ft Westland Mall is five miles north of Miami International Airport. The combined initial yield on the deals is around 5.5%.
It bought the two malls from SPG- FCM Ventures - a 50/50 joint venture between an entity owned by Simon Property Group and funds managed by Farallon Capital Management. The joint venture bought the two centres as part of its purchase of the Mills Corporation in March.
Westfield managing director Peter Lowy said: ‘These transactions complement our recent capital raising initiatives, consistent with our ongoing strategy of recycling capital.’
On its Missouri disposals Westfield has entered into two separate transactions with CBL & Associates Properties, which have a joint value of around $1bn (£490m). Westfield will sell Chesterfield Mall to CBL and has separately agreed to put three other centres - Mid-Rivers, South County and West County - into a new joint venture vehicle managed and controlled by CBL in return for a preferred minority limited partner interest .
The four centres are on average 86% leased and the gross value of the four centres to be transferred represents a yield of between 6.0% and 6.2%.
Westfield’s investment in the joint venture vehicle will be subject to certain redemption rights following the fifth anniversary of the closing.
Lowy said the deal with CBL would allow it to ‘better focus the Group’s management expertise in its US portfolio and extensive redevelopment pipeline’.
The deals are expected to close within 90 days.
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