Charter Hall to buy malls

Property group Charter Hall has agreed to buy two Westfield shopping centres in Perth's north-west for $255 million.

But the deal to acquire the Innaloo Shopping Centre and Shoppers Village, and the adjoining Innaloo Mega Centre, is conditional on the Westfield Group (WDC) and Westfield Trust (WRT) changing its ownership of the Karrinyup shopping centre, in Perth's north, before Christmas.

Charter Hall said that if Westfield takes up the option, the Innaloo properties would be held within a newly established unlisted wholesale trust.

The trust would be 85% owned by an institutional partner and the remaining 15% would be owned by the Charter Hall Group.

"The acquisition, if it proceeds, is expected to be marginally earnings accretive in fiscal 2014," Charter Hall said in a statement.