Scentre Group
 |
|
| Public | |
| Traded as | ASX: SCG |
| Industry |
Real estate development Shopping centre management |
| Predecessor | Westfield Group |
| Founded | 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) |
|
Number of employees
|
2,586 (2014) |
| Website | www |
Scentre Group was created in June 2014 when the Westfield Group separated its United States and European businesses from its operations in Australia and New Zealand. It is one of the world’s leading shopping centre companies 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 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.
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. 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.
Australian Real Estate Investment Trust (A-REIT) shares have been highly volatile over the past decade, as Chart 1 shows.
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.
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. 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.
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Wikipedia