TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire -02/14/12)- The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) announced today an agreement to form a joint venture with the Westfield Group. The joint venture will consist of interests in 10 regional malls and two redevelopment sites located in the United States. The properties are currently owned and managed by Westfield and have a total gross value of US$4.8 billion. CPPIB's equity investment will be US$1.8 billion representing a 45% interest in the joint venture. The transaction is expected to close during the first quarter of 2012.
Graeme Eadie, Senior Vice-President, Real Estate Investments, CPPIB, said: "This is an excellent opportunity to acquire a significant interest in a portfolio comprising high quality regional shopping centres that are well positioned for long term growth. This acquisition represents our largest real estate investment to date globally and supports our retail real estate strategy of investing in dominant regional malls with best in class operators. We are pleased to partner once again with Westfield, a longstanding partner with deep expertise in both the U.S. and global retail sector."
Westfield Group co-Chief Executive Officer Peter Lowy, said: "This new agreement continues the Group's strategy of creating value through the introduction of joint venture partners into our assets globally. We are pleased to further expand our long term relationship with CPPIB through this U.S joint venture."
Westfield Group will serve as the managing general partner for the joint venture and will remain as the property manager, leasing agent and developer for the properties.
With the completion of this transaction, CPPIB will become one of the largest institutional owners of regional shopping centres in the U.S. with interests in a total of 26 malls located in major urban markets. As at December 31, 2011, CPPIB's real estate investments totaled $14.4 billion representing 9.5% of the CPP Fund.
Below is a schedule detailing the properties to be included in the joint venture:
WESTFIELD/CPPIB PROPERTY PORTFOLIO
As of December 31, 2011
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Gross Leasable Area
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No. of Specialty
Total Specialty Specialty Percent
Shopping Centre Location (sf) (sf) Stores Leased
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Westfield Annapolis Annapolis, MD 1,462,363 770,215 254 96.1%
Westfield Culver Culver City, 1,062,120 502,701 171 88.7%
City CA
Westfield Horton San Diego, CA 758,410 477,924 132 94.5%
Plaza
Westfield Mission San Diego, CA 1,573,803 794,875 127 96.3%
Valley
Westfield North Escondido, CA 1,255,561 446,135 174 96.3%
County
Westfield Oakridge San Jose, CA 1,144,048 617,304 195 94.9%
Westfield Plaza National 1,032,903 595,138 182 93.5%
Bonita City, CA
Westfield Santa Arcadia, CA 1,311,264 795,440 245 92.5%
Anita
Westfield Tukwila, WA 1,682,736 760,880 243 95.0%
Southcenter
Westfield Topanga Canoga Park, 1,637,596 681,229 278 90.9%
CA
West Valley / Woodland 613,530 343,530 46 83.7%
Westfield Hills, CA
Promenade (i)
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Totals 13,534,334 6,785,371 2,047 93.4%
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(i) Westfield Promenade is an existing shopping centre with 613,530 square feet. The West Valley development site, located between the existing Westfield Topanga and Westfield Promenade centres, encompasses 30.67 acres and is slated for development of the "Village at Westfield Topanga", a dynamic mixed-use project designed for more than one million square feet of retail, restaurant, office, boutique hotel and community uses.
About Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is a professional investment management organization that invests the funds not needed by the Canada Pension Plan to pay current benefits on behalf of 18 million Canadian contributors and beneficiaries. In order to build a diversified portfolio of CPP assets, CPPIB invests in public equities, private equities, real estate, inflation-linked bonds, infrastructure and fixed income instruments. Headquartered in Toronto, with offices in London and Hong Kong, CPPIB is governed and managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan and at arm's length from governments. At December 31, 2011, the CPP Fund totalled $152.8 billion. For more information, please visit www.cppib.ca.
About Westfield Group
The Westfield Group (ASX Code: WDC) is an internally managed, vertically integrated, shopping centre group undertaking ownership, development, design, construction, funds/asset management, property management, leasing and marketing activities and employing approximately 4,000 staff worldwide. The Westfield Group has interests in and operates one of the world's largest shopping centre portfolios with investment interests in 118 shopping centres across Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Brazil, encompassing more than 24,000 retail outlets and total assets under management of A$61.7 billion. In the U.S., the Group has a portfolio of 55 shopping centres that are home to more than 9,000 specialty stores and comprise approximately 63 million square feet of leasable space in California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Washington.
CPP Investment Board
Linda Sims
Director, Media Relations
+1 416 868 8695
linda.sims@cppib.ca
www.cppib.ca
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