Shopping centre giant Westfield has revealed a positive set of results for the first quarter of the 2012 financial year, with its Australian and New Zealand centres showing strong performance.
The report, for the three months to March 31, revealed a solid performance across the group's global operations, with a number of strategic transactions resulting in proceeds of $4.8 billion for the company.
Overall, Westfield also reported its portfolio as at March 31 was 97.2 per cent leased, with the US centres at 91.6 per cent, the UK at over 99 per cent and the Australian and New Zealand centres over 99.5 per cent.
Westfield Group co-CEOs, Peter Lowy and Steven Lowy said they were pleased with the first quarter result, with the group's operations performing in line with expectations.
“Our operating performance for the first quarter this year also saw continuing high levels of occupancy, growth in average rents and comparable specialty sales growth in each of our regions.,” Steven Lowy said.
In Australia, comparable specialty rates for the 12 months were also up 1.2 per cent and up 1.1 per cent for the quarter, according to the company.
“The productivity of our Australian portfolio continues to be high with specialty sales of approximately $9800 a square metre, near full occupancy and good demand for space in both existing centres and new developments such as Fountain Gate in Victoria and Carindale in Queensland.”
However, in Australia, in terms of comparable change in retail sales by category for the period, department stores saw a drop of 0.2 per cent, with discount department stores also down 2.5 per cent.
In terms of specialities, fashion declined 0.2 per cent, footwear by 1.8 per cent, with jewellery down 3.7 per cent.
In New Zealand, comparable specialty retail sales continue to improve and were up 2.2 per cent for both the 12 months and the March quarter. Average specialty rent for the Australian and New Zealand portfolio grew by 3.1 per cent from March 2011.
Going forward, the group reported it is
undertaking pre-development activity on approximately $11 billion of
future opportunities, with projects slated for Australia and New
Zealand including: Chermside, Mt Grvatt, and North Lakes in
Queensland, Marion and Tea Tree Plaza in South Australia, Miranda and
Tuggerah in New South Wales, and Newmarket in New Zealand.