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hares in Australian property firm Centro Properties Group (opened up 18 percent on Friday after it agreed an extension of maturities on about A$2.8 billion ($2.6 billion) of debt.

Centro, one of Australia’s highest profile casualties of the global credit crunch, said on Thursday its banks had agreed to an extension to Dec. 15.

Centro, which owns about 700 U.S. shopping malls, borrowed heavily last year to fund a rapid expansion in the U.S., but ran into trouble after credit markets dried up and it was unable to refinance expiring debt.

Thursday’s extension is still subject to some conditions being met by May 30, including the banks agreeing to the process for refinancing or asset sales.

Link.

• April 3, 2008, Centro Clears a Hurdle
• Feb. 29, 2008, Report: Blackstone, GE, Mulpha, Mirvac Bidding for Centro.
• Feb. 28, 2008, Centro Shares Surge
• Feb. 15, 2008, Centro Wins Extension
• Jan. 15, 2008, Scott Out, Rufrano In at Centro
• Jan. 10, 2008, Daily Centro Update
• Jan. 9, 2008, UBS Cuts Stake in Centro
• Jan. 3, 2008, Centro: Morgan Stanley, Westfield Have Approached Firm
• Jan. 2, 2008, Centro Says Its Getting Offers
• Dec. 18, 2007, Another Round of Centro Coverage
• Dec. 17, 2007, Centro Hit by Credit Crunch
• May, 10, 2007, Centro’s Structure
• Feb. 28, 2007, Centro To Buy New Plan

Private Equity Real Estate magazine unveiled its list of the top 30 private equity investors in real estate.

Blackstone and Morgan Stanley top the list. Here’s the top 10:

1 The Blackstone Group
2 Morgan Stanley Real Estate
3 Tishman Speyer
4 Goldman Sachs Real Estate Principal Investment Area
5 Colony Capital
6 Lehman Brothers Real Estate
7 The Carlyle Group
8 ProLogis
9 Beacon Capital Partners
10 LaSalle Investment Management

PERE has a feature on the firms here.

The calendar shift (with Easter falling early in April) and deep discounting among retailers helped propel the industry to a 3.6 percent gain in same-store sales. Easter is usually a slow period for retail sales, so having it fall in March meant that April was free from its downward effects. Further, retailers aggressive promotion plans seemed to help push sales volumes even if in the end it might cut into margins when retailers report quarterly earnings.

CNBC has a rundown of the results. Margaret Brennan adds her take here, which includes a video.

ICSC’s report can be accessed here (if you’re a member.)

Best Buy Co., the largest U.S. electronics retailer, will open its first stores in Europe by investing 1.1 billion pounds ($2.15 billion) in a joint venture with Carphone Warehouse Group Plc.

The 50-50 venture will include Carphone Warehouse’s 2,400 retail stores in nine European countries, the companies said in a statement today. The assets will also include London-based Carphone Warehouse’s share of an existing venture with Best Buy.

Best Buy will open stores under its brand name across Europe, beginning next year in the U.K., where the electronics retail market is dominated by DSG International Plc’s Dixons, Currys and PC World stores. Richfield, Minnesota-based Best Buy has almost four times the revenue of its closest competitor, Circuit City Stores Inc.

Link.

The latest from NetGain:

Based on all the relevant economic data, what do the next twelve months have in store? NetGain has stated on numerous occasions that the next twelve months will be a difficult time for commercial real estate investors. You don’t need a degree in economics to know that consumers account for a majority (70%) of the economy and that as a group employed people propel the economy. From these deductions, one only has to look for two words in the newspapers to know where the economy is going: “hire” and “layoff”.

During the past six months, how many times has the word “hire” appeared in the newspapers? Practically none. During the past six months, how many times has the word “layoff” appeared in the newspapers? Almost every day. The obvious conclusion is that unemployment numbers are going up. Higher unemployment will result in declining consumer confidence, declining consumer spending, and finally a weaker economy.

Everyone knows the economy is weaker. The gross domestic product (GDP) grew a paltry 0.6% for each of the last two quarters. The key questions are how much worse will it get and how long will it be until the economy starts to improve? NetGain believes that the current economy will continue to decline. NetGain also believes that we have seen the worst of the slide and that any further declines in stock and real estate values will not be significant. The economic turnaround that everyone is looking for will begin within the next six to twelve months. This all assumes no foolish legislation or terrorist attack(s). Remember: This is only an opinion. The economy can certainly get much worse, and a turnaround can take longer than NetGain’s projection.

To keep reading, go here.

Westfield Group reported its results, which came through similar to what U.S. regional mall REITs have reported.

Sales from shops at the Australian malls rose 5.9 percent to A$20 billion ($19 billion) in the three months ended March 31, compared with the year-earlier period, Sydney-based Westfield said in a statement today. U.S. sales growth slowed to 0.7 percent from 4.7 percent a year earlier.

…

The strongest growth at Australian malls was posted by leisure retailers, where sales rose 13 percent, and jewelers with a gain of 10 percent. Department store sales increased 3.9 percent and supermarkets advanced 3.4 percent, Westfield said.

The company’s U.S. centers had sales of $7.2 billion with 92.8 percent of its malls leased. Occupancy at the U.S. malls fell 0.6 percentage point from a year earlier.

Feldman Mall Properties, a co-owner of Colonie Center, has reached an agreement with an investor who has been pressing the company to make changes to its board of directors.

The investor, James W. Sight of Shawnee Mission, Kan., will be nominated to serve on the board of Feldman Mall Properties (NYSE: FMP) when the Long Island-based company holds its annual meeting May 28.

But Sight, who owns 6.8 percent of FMP’s outstanding shares, has withdrawn the nomination of two other board directors, Charles L. Frischer of New York City and Mark S. Tennenbaum of Santa Monica, Calif.

Sight has agreed to vote his shares in support of all the candidates nominated by the board. That slate will include Chairman Larry Feldman and a new director, Wendy Luscombe, who was elected to serve on the board beginning May 12.

Luscombe fills a vacancy created by James C. Bourg, who didn’t stand for re-election at the company’s 2007 annual meeting.

Link.

Margaret Brennan at CNBC’s Retail Detail provides a preview of the forthcoming ICSC announcement of April’s same-store sales figures.

How’s that? Last April was a weak one because it included a slow shopping period post-Easter. This year, Easter fell in March which means that this April we didn’t have to digest that weak shopping period. The bottom line: the year over year comparison is an easy one this time thanks to a calendar shift.

What should be interesting is what retailers say about the rebate check payouts and whether the stimulus package truly is impacting results. While shoppers didn’t receive the checks until the beginning of May (some are in the mail now), consumers may have spent some of that money before receiving the checks.

Consumer psychology is such that the boost of confidence from ‘free money’ may motivate people to spend some if not all of that extra cash. Analyst Chuck Grom of JP Morgan says he thinks that we’re already seeing that sales bump from rebate checks.

The New York Times has a piece today raising some alarms about Lightstone Group (which owns Prime Retail, among other assets.) Last June, the firm acquired Extended Stay hotels for $8.1 billion, which may now be causing the firm some credit headaches. It’s also tried to refinance loans on some of its retail assets. To date it hasn’t missed any payments. Overall, David Lichtenstein expects the firm to weather the storm.

Lightstone is also trying to renegotiate the terms of its loans with a total balance of $139.7 million for the Burlington Square Mall in Burlington, N.C., and the Macon Mall in Macon, Ga. Both malls have fierce competition from shopping centers, Mr. Lichtenstein said.

Delinquencies among loans in commercial mortgage-backed securities have been inching up, but the rate so far remains low. Realpoint Research, a division of Capmark that tracks commercial mortgage-backed securities, singled out the Lightstone mall loans in a recent report as among only three with an unpaid balance exceeding $100 million that have been transferred to loan officers known as “special servicers” because they were in danger of default.

Though Lightstone is current on its mortgage payments, the company has told the special servicer, CW Capital Asset Management, that it cannot keep paying because of declining cash flow, said Frank Innaurato, a managing director of Realpoint.

“It raises a red flag for a company such as Lightstone that grew very fast over the last couple of years that they are finding properties that they might not want to keep backing going forward,” Mr. Innaurato said.

But Mr. Lichtenstein, 47, shrugs off his problems with the mall and apartment mortgages. Given the size of Lightstone’s portfolio — 23 million square feet spread across about 950 individual properties — a few losses are to be expected, he said.

Link.

For centuries, Istanbul lured intrepid shoppers with colorful jewellery and carpets which tumbled from shops in the ancient alleyways of the Grand Bazaar.

Today, the city’s affluent young middle-class is embracing a different kind of shopping experience in giant glass-and-chrome malls, whose rise strikingly illustrates Turkey’s emerging prosperity, but also spotlights some economic frailties.

Shopping malls are sprouting across Istanbul at a dizzying pace, with foreign money attracted by Turkey’s large, young and growing population of over 70 million. According to official data, per capita income surged to $9,333 in 2007 from $7,500 a year earlier and is expected to continue rising strongly.

“Organized retailing is coming alive and competition is growing, to the consumer’s advantage. The choice of brands is increasing and quality is rising,” said Turan Ozbahceci, chairman of PERDER, an Istanbul Retailers’ Association.

Link.