Westfield Corp., which owns 35 malls including the Westfield Trumbull, is being acquired by French commercial real estate giant Unibail-Rodamco for $15.7 billion.
The new company will be based in Paris and Amsterdam, with regional headquarters in Los Angeles and London.
Unibail-Rodamco, based in Paris, is the largest commercial real estate company in Europe. It operates 69 shopping centers in such cities as Paris, Madrid, Stockholm and Amsterdam, and is developing malls in Brussels and Hamburg, Germany.
Westfield, headquartered in Sydney, Australia, operates 32 malls in the U.S. and three in the U.K., with another under development in Italy. Its Australian and New Zealand holdings were spun off into a separate company in 2014.
The deal, which requires regulatory approval, “creates a strong and attractive platform for future growth,” according to Unibail-Rodamco CEO Christophe Cuvillier.
Westfield”™s 87-year-old chairman Sir Frank Lowy will retire after the deal is completed, most likely in the second quarter of next year. His sons Peter and Steven will also step down as Westfield”™s co-CEOs.
Meanwhile, GGP Inc., the real estate investment trust whose projects include the forthcoming SoNo Collection megamall in Norwalk, has rejected Brookfield Property Partners L.P.”™s $14.8 billion takeover bid. Talks between the two firms are continuing.
