Australia’s Westfield Ceases Mall Projects for 2009

The world’s top mall owner by market value, Westfield Group Ltd. has confirmed it will hall any attempts to open malls this year, saving up to $2 billion USD as capital markets continue to remain unstable. Company shares rose 5% on Thursday to $10.25 USD, reporting a 1% rise in the broader market after this announcement was made.

The group owns 119 shopping malls and reaffirmed that it expects operating earnings per share to fall by at least 6% this year, with growth in New Zealand and Australia offsetting declines in Britain and the United States.

Evidently, the group’s Australian malls are performing much better than offshore malls, perhaps because they have supermarkets and discount stores and aren’t as dependent as much on fashion outlets. Also, Australian shoppers are still spending more green, thanks to handouts from the government’s stimulus package, lower fuel costs and drastic drops in interest rates – bearing the brunt of a recession much less than U.S. and British counterparts.

Westfield posted a 10.4 % rise in operating profit and reaffirmed it expected earnings to fall in the year ahead, but ensured that earnings per share would fall between $0.94 and $0.97 a share in 2009 and its dividend to be in the same range.