The owner of one of Australia’s biggest mall owners was on the backfoot this week as it was forced to defend its business and growth strategy.

At the annual meeting of Scentre Group – the Westfield mall owner – on Thursday, activist shareholder David Kingston questioned the group’s business strategy.

“Over the last five years, the key metrics have fallen by 12 to 25 per cent. That’s a large fall, if you then take into account that that’s not inflation adjusted, it is even larger,” said Kingston.

As Channelnews reported previously, Scentre recorded a 41.8 per cent drop in its annual statutory profit earlier this year.

Scentre’s annual result saw a full year profit of $174.9 million, after booking an unrealised $1 billion writedown on the value of its shopping centre portfolio during that period.

Scentre’s annual result for the year ended December 31, 2023, also revealed revenue increased 2.1 per cent year-on-year to $2.51 billion, with funds from operations increasing 5.2 per cent year-to-year to $1.09 billion.

As of December 31, the group’s portfolio was valued at $34.3 billion.

However, at the meeting this week, Kingston continued to draw attention to the company’s senior and subordinated debt, calling its debt position the “sleeping elephant” in the room.

However, Scentre’s chief executive Elliott Rusanow defended the company’s performance that took it through the pandemic and added that there were opportunities to refinance.

Kingston also drew attention to Westfield co-founder Frank Lowy selling out at close to $4 a share in 2019. On Friday, Spectre’s shares hovered over the $3.30 mark.

Scentre’s chair Ilana Atlas added that the shopping centre industry wasn’t fully over the impact that the pandemic had on it.