(Reuters) - Australian shopping mall owner Scentre Group on Monday said privately held property investor Perron Group will buy a 50% stake in a Sydney shopping centre for A$575 million ($396 million).
The consideration paid by Perron Group for its stake in Westfield Burwood, represents a 4.1% premium to book value at Dec. 31 2018, Scentre said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange.
Westfield Burwood sees over 14 million customers annually and generates about A$480 million in sales each year, according to Scentre's website.
The company plans on using the proceeds from the deal to initially repay debt.
The transaction is also expected to be dilutive to the funds from operations in 2019, the primary earnings metric of the company, by about 0.2 cents per security.
Scentre added that its forecast annual distribution remains unchanged at 22.60 cents per security.
(Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; editing by Richard Pullin and Stephen Coates)
