WASHINGTON _ Westfield Corp., operator of upscale shopping malls in Los Angeles and dozens of other locations in the U.S. and Britain, is being sold to French commercial real estate giant Unibail-Rodamco in a $16 billion deal, the two companies announced Tuesday.
The cash-and-stock deal values shares of Australia-based Westfield at $7.55 a share, an 18 percent premium over Monday's closing price.
Westfield's 16 California locations include its Century City shopping center, which recently completed a $1-billion makeover.
Christophe Cuvillier, chief executive of Unibail-Rodamco, said his company was attracted to Westfield's "iconic collection of world-class shopping destinations."
The deal enables Unibail-Rodamco _ which is Europe's largest publicly traded commercial real estate company _ to expand its presence into "a number of new attractive real estate markets," including London and wealthy areas in the U.S., Cuvillier said in a statement.
Unibail-Rodamco owns and operates 69 shopping centers in some of Europe's key cities, including Paris, Madrid, Stockholm, Amsterdam and Munich, Germany. The company also is developing malls in Brussels and in Hamburg, Germany.
Westfield began in 1959 when billionaire Frank Lowy and his partner John Saunders opened a shopping center in Sydney, Australia. The company grew into one of the world's largest shopping mall owners.
Lowy, a Holocaust survivor from Czechoslovakia, served as Westfield's chief executive for more than 50 years before becoming non-executive chairman of the board in 2011. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II this month for his contributions to the United Kingdom's economy and for his philanthropy.
Westfield said it owns 35 shopping malls valued at $32 billion. In the Los Angeles area, it has the newly renovated Century City mall, as well as its Culver City, Topanga & the Village, Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks, and Santa Anita malls. Other Southern California locations include the Valencia Town Center mall in Santa Clarita, Westfield Mission Valley, and Horton Plaza and UTC malls in San Diego.
The deal is subject to approval by both companies' shareholders and is expected to close in the first half of next year.
