Scentre Group

Scentre Group Limited
Public
Traded as ASX: SCG
Industry Real estate development
Shopping centre management
Predecessor Westfield Group
Founded 2014 (2014)
(as a spin off from Westfield Development Corporation founded 1960), listed on the Sydney Stock Exchange)
Headquarters 85 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, Australia
Area served
 Australia
New Zealand
Key people
 Brian Schwartz (Chairman)
Peter Allen (CEO)
Total assets A$40.9 billion (2015)[1]
Number of employees
 2,586 (2014)[2]
Website www.scentregroup.com

Scentre Group Limited is a shopping centre company with retail destinations operating under the Westfield brand in Australia and New Zealand. The corporation undertakes ownership, development, design, construction, funds/asset management, property management, leasing, and marketing activities for its centres. The group was created in June 2014 when the Westfield Group separated its American and European businesses from its operations in Australia and New Zealand.[3] The company is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and has a shopping centre portfolio that includes investment interests in 43 shopping centres across Australia and New Zealand, encompassing around 12,544 retail outlets and total assets under management in excess of A$39.4 billion.[1]

History

The Scentre Group has origins in the western suburbs of Sydney. The first development was named "Westfield Place", and opened in July 1959 in Blacktown.[4] The name Westfield is derived from "west" related to the West-Sydney location, and "field" due to having located on subdivided farmland. John Saunders and Frank Lowy opened the centre.[4]

The company was floated on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1960 and built another five centres in New South Wales before expanding into Victoria and Queensland in 1966-67.[5]

The expansion into the United States began with the purchase of the Trumbull Shopping Park in Connecticut in 1977, and was followed by three centres in California, Michigan, and Connecticut in 1980 and three centres in California, New Jersey and Long Island, New York in 1986.[5] In 1994, Westfield joined together with General Growth and Whitehall Real Estate to purchase 19 centres for US$1 billion. Westfield seems to form clusters of centres around particular cities or within a small number of states. The company built considerable holdings on the east coast and in California before expanding in the Mid-West. By 2005, the company owned centres in 15 US states.[5]

In the 1990s, Westfield began a major expansion to New Zealand, where it mostly bought existing shopping centres of the Fletchers Company, and progressively rebranded them. Only in 2007, with Westfield Albany, the company opened a fully new centre in the country.[6]

In April 2012, it was announced that the Westfield Group would sell seven 'non-core' property assets to Starwood Capital Group for A$1 billion and one other property to an undisclosed buyer for A$147 million. The funds would be used to repay debt and invest in businesses offering higher return. The sales were expected completed by November 2013.[7]

In June 2014, Westfield Group, one of the world’s largest shopping centre companies, restructured to create two, new independent companies: Scentre Group and Westfield Corporation. Scentre Group was created to own and manage the company’s interests in Australia and New Zealand. The Westfield Corporation owns and manages Westfield shopping centres in the United States and the United Kingdom. Although Westfield Group has evolved into two separate companies, the consumer branding will remain the same for Scentre Groups shopping centre portfolio.

In addition to transforming Westfield shopping centres in Sydney, Bondi Junction, and Queensland, Scentre Group is developing centres in Miranda in Sydney and Mt Gravatt in Brisbane. Chermside in Brisbane and Marion in Adelaide are development projects the company will be starting in 2015.[8]

In October 2015, Frank Lowy stepped down as the chairman of the Scentre Group following 55 years in charge.[9]

Current Operations

Scentre Group currently has interests in total assets worth A$38.6 billion, owning 43 shopping malls in Australia and New Zealand − with over 3.8 million square meters of retail space. The company is also currently building centres in Miranda in Sydney and Mt Gravatt in Brisbane.

Australia

Having been established in Australia, with its original premises being at Blacktown, the Scentre Group continues to operate a large number of shopping centres in Australia under the Westfield brand.

Westfield shopping centres in Australia
Centre name Location Total retail floor area
m2 sq. ft.
Westfield Belconnen Belconnen, Australian Capital Territory 94,718 1,019,536
Westfield Woden Woden Valley, Australian Capital Territory 72,292 778,145
Westfield Bondi Junction Bondi Junction, New South Wales 127,716 1,374,724
Westfield Burwood Burwood, New South Wales 63,319 681,560
Westfield Chatswood Chatswood, New South Wales 77,107 829,973
Westfield Eastgardens Eastgardens, New South Wales 85,085 915,847
Westfield Hornsby Hornsby, New South Wales 99,953 1,075,885
Westfield Hurstville Hurstville, New South Wales 62,542 673,196
Westfield Kotara Kotara, New South Wales 68,491 737,231
Westfield Liverpool Liverpool, New South Wales 85,199 917,074
Westfield Miranda Miranda, New South Wales 107,929 1,161,738
Westfield Mount Druitt Mount Druitt, New South Wales 60,190 647,880
Westfield Parramatta Parramatta, New South Wales 137,321 1,478,111
Westfield Penrith Penrith, New South Wales 91,690 986,943
Westfield Sydney Sydney CBD, New South Wales 167,975 1,808,068
Westfield Tuggerah Tuggerah, New South Wales 83,391 897,613
Westfield Warringah Mall Brookvale, New South Wales 126,634 1,363,077
Westfield Carindale Carindale, Queensland 135,496 1,458,467
Westfield Chermside Chermside, Queensland 150,927 1,624,565
Westfield Garden City Mount Gravatt, Queensland 98,651 1,061,871
Westfield Helensvale Helensvale, Queensland 44,626 480,350
Westfield North Lakes North Lakes, Queensland 61,428 661,205
Westfield Marion Oaklands Park, South Australia 135,241 1,455,722
Westfield Tea Tree Plaza Modbury, South Australia 93,974 1,011,528
Westfield West Lakes West Lakes, South Australia 72,823 783,860
Westfield Airport West Airport West, Victoria 123,190 1,326,006
Westfield Doncaster Doncaster, Victoria 123,190 1,326,006
Westfield Fountain Gate Narre Warren, Victoria 174,900 1,882,608
Westfield Geelong Geelong, Victoria 51,643 555,881
Westfield Knox Wantirna South, Victoria 141,934 1,527,765
Westfield Plenty Valley Mill Park, Victoria 53,845 579,583
Westfield Southland Cheltenham, Victoria 129,167 1,390,342
Westfield Carousel Cannington, Western Australia 82,370 886,623
Westfield Innaloo Innaloo, Western Australia 47,461 510,866
Westfield Whitford City Hillarys, Western Australia 77,751 836,905

New Zealand

Westfield entered the New Zealand market in 1997 and acquired an interest in the St. Lukes Group portfolio in 1998. Westfield malls are by far the most numerous chain in New Zealand, with most of its centres located in Auckland, including their largest development located in Albany.[10] As of February 2017, Westfield had NZ$2.5 billion in assets under management in New Zealand.[11]

In mid-2012 Westfield sold its 50% share of Westfield Shore City in Takapuna on Auckland's North Shore, now known as Shore City Shopping Centre. Later that same year the company sold Westfield Pakuranga, now known as Pakuranga Plaza.[12]

In 2014 Scentre sold 49% of five malls to the Singapore Government's GIC Private Limited. The malls are Albany, Manukau, Newmarket and St Lukes in Auckland, and Riccarton in Christchurch.[13]

In 2015 two more Westfield malls sold by Scentre Group were Chartwell Shopping Centre (formerly Westfield Chartwell) and Queensgate Shopping Centre (formerly Westfield Queensgate).[14]

In February 2017, it was announced that Scentre Group had sold the Westfield WestCity mall in Henderson, Auckland, to the family-owned Australian business Angaet Group for A$147 million.[15]

Westfield shopping centres in New Zealand
Centre name Location Total retail floor area
m2 sq. ft.
Westfield Albany Albany, Auckland 53,217 572,823
Westfield Manukau City Manukau, Auckland 45,528 490,059
Westfield Newmarket Newmarket, Auckland 31,491 338,966
Westfield St Lukes Mount Albert, Auckland 39,699 427,316
Westfield Riccarton Riccarton, Christchurch 55,397 596,288

Westfield Labs

Based in San Francisco, California, Westfield Labs[16] is an entity of Westfield Corporation. Westfield Labs works closely with Scentre Group to provide it with digital shopping initiatives that can be deployed throughout the company’s operations in Australia and New Zealand.

References

  1. 1 2 "SCENTRE GROUP FORECASTS FFO GROWTH OF 3.5% TO 22.5 CENTS PER SECURITY FOR 2015" (PDF) (Press release). Scentre Group. 24 February 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  2. ↑ "Scentre Group Careers". July 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  3. ↑ "SCENTRE GROUP (ASX: SCG) – IMPLEMENTATION OF WESTFIELD GROUP RESTRUCTURE" (PDF) (Press release). Scentre Group. 30 June 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  4. 1 2 "Westfield History: Westfield Stirs (1956–1960)" (PDF). About us. p. 14. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 November 2006. Retrieved 5 January 2007.
  5. 1 2 3 Sammartino, André; Van Ruth, Frances (2007). "The Westfield Group". In Dick, H.; Merrett, D. The Internationalisation Strategies of Small-Country Firms: The Australian Experience of Globalisation. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. pp. 308–318.
  6. ↑ Gibson, Anne (23 August 2007). "Countdown under way for Albany supermall rollout". New Zealand Herald.
  7. ↑ "Starwood Capital Group Completes $1.6B Acquisition of Seven Dominant Regional Malls from Westfield Group" (Press release). 22 November 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  8. ↑ "SCENTRE GROUP FORECASTS FFO OF 10.88 CENTS PER SECURITY FOR THE SECOND HALF OF 2014" (Press release). 26 August 2014.
  9. ↑ "Frank Lowy steps down as Scentre Group chairman". AFR.com. 23 October 2015.
  10. ↑ Gibson, Anne (29 June 2012). "Westfield sells Auckland's Shore City mall". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  11. ↑ "Scentre Group Properties". 21 February 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  12. ↑ Hutching, Chris (11 December 2013). "Another Westfield Mall Sold". New Zealand Herald.
  13. ↑ Kloten, Niko; Harris, Catherine (7 November 2014). "Singapore fund buys into NZ Westfield shopping centres". Stuff. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  14. ↑ Hamish Rutherford (27 November 2015). "Westfield malls in Lower Hutt and Hamilton to be rebranded after sale". Stuff.co.nz.
  15. ↑ "Auckland mall WestCity sold for A$147m". NZ Herald. 21 February 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  16. ↑ "Westfield Labs". July 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
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