Sir Frank Lowy has made a move to sell Westfield Corp for $33 billion big ones, and did we mention we called this a couple of months back?
Okay, so we didn’t exactly utter the words ‘Lowy’s gonna sell’, but the fact that he is palming off his international shopping conglomerate is a surefire sign of the times. On Tuesday, Westfield made the announcement that it would sell up to Unibail-Rodamco. Never heard of them either? Apparently Unibail-Rodamco are Europe’s largest listed property company, so no big deal really.
Hailed as the ‘Prince of Property’, Sir Frank Lowy has been described as having ‘exquisite timing’ in the acquisition and sale of his ventures. It’s certainly interesting that he is ripping up stumps now, right as a metaphorical cloud of question marks looms over the retail industry. Winston Sammut, managing director of Folkestone Maxim Asset management, has hinted that Lowy could be making his grand exit from the industry while it’s at its peak. With online sales (aptly dubbed ‘e-tail’) dominating the economy, it makes sense that Lowy is moving on. On the other hand, we reported earlier this year that many Westfield malls have been under the knife – improving design and aesthetics to make for a better, all-inclusive shopping ‘experience’. So, what does this sale mean for the newly-renovated malls?
Chairman of the US-based Reputation Management Consultants, Eric Schiffer quipped that the Lowy’s were bouncing on the Westfield biz before giants like Amazon ‘destroyed their malls and turned them into relic tombs of the 20th Century’. Challenging their recent design shake-up , Schiffer remarked,
‘You can only do so much to reimagine a shopping mall. It’s like trying to reinvent the horse and carriage, no matter how much you try you can’t turn a horse into a Tesla.’
There’s no doubt that we’re all here for a grand shopping experience, but has the prospect of better-lit and Insta-worthy dressing rooms really coaxed more shoppers offline?
Look, we have plenty of questions: what are Unibail-Rodamco thinking buying into the retail industry while Amazon reigns supreme? Will the newly-renovated shopping malls be dashed to dust as soon as the bags of bitcoin (we can only assume) are transferred? Do the European’s hold the key to end this so-called retail-pocalypse? Surely, since the Australian and NZ malls were folded into Scentre a few years back, we’ll be safe from any drastic mall removal procedures – but we’ll keep you updated.
Do you prefer to shop online or at the shopping mall? We want to know what you think about this sale, and whether you agree with the notion of a retail-pocalypse?