Australian shopping centre giant Westfield Group is thought to be in talks with a consortium of banks over a $1.25bn debt restructuring.
Westfield, which owns the Westfield London shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush, is in talks to raise US$1.25bn (£0.76bn) to extend an existing loan facility by 18 months.
The company is looking to extend an existing US$1.65bn (£1.01bn) loan that matures in January 2011.
At the end of May,Westfieldissued $700m of loan notes that it said would go towardpaying down existing debt.
The banks understood to be involved in the talks include Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, Barclays, Citigroup, National Australia Bank, Westpac Banking Corp and Royal Bank of Scotland.
It is believed the loan will cost Westfield 240 basis points over Libor, compared with the current 37.5bp it is paying for its existing $1.65bn loan.
Westfield has A$3.5bn (£1.7bn) of bonds and loans maturing next year and a further A$2.1bn (£1.1bn) maturing in 2011.
Westfield: looking to extend existing $1.65bn loan facility by 18 months
