Westfield plans $1.2b new works this year

Westfield Group, the world's biggest shopping centre owner by market value, reported better-than-expected growth in its Australian malls and said it will start A$1 billion ($1.2 billion) of developments this year.

Australian sales in the year to March 31 totalled A$21.5 billion, Sydney-based Westfield said yesterday.

The company saw "strong results from the Australian/New Zealand portfolios, notwithstanding the anticipated softening sales growth for the quarter", it said.

"Due to the improving environment, the group now expects to commence approximately A$1 billion of development projects in 2010," with about A$800 million in Australia and A$200 million in the US.

Australian consumer confidence, which held close to its highest level in almost three years in April, and an unemployment rate that's almost half the levels in the US and Europe, suggest households are weathering the central bank's world-leading interest rate increases.

Revenue at US centres, which account for almost half of Westfield's 119 shopping malls around the world, rose 5.3 per cent in the March quarter from a year ago, the company said.

Westfield's New Zealand malls include 277 Newmarket, St Lukes, Albany, Queensgate and Glenfield.

- BLOOMBERG