centro stocks in halt...in smh, page-8

From: The Australian

Centro seeks urgent tweak to $3bn merger agreement

THE ailing Centro empire has sought an urgent hearing at the NSW Supreme Court today to get the court's sign off on a "tweak" to the company's $3 billion the merger agreement that will hopefully win the support of Centro Retail shareholders.

Centro Properties and Centro Retail entered into a trading halt this morning ahead of an announcement on the shopping centre owner’s aggregations plans.

It is understood Centro Properties’ senior lenders that have proposed the merger of the two listed property trusts with a number of debt-laden funds are planning to present an amended implementation agreement to shareholders this afternoon if the court signs off on the changes.

Yesterday, Centro Retail’s largest external shareholder Marathon Asset Management said it would not vote for the deal unless changes were made to the structure of the deal.

Centro chief executive Robert Tsenin has previously warned Centro Properties, which has $1.7bn in negative equity, will be tipped into administration if the deal doesn’t go ahead.

The matter will be heard before Justice Reginald Barrett this afternoon at 2pm AEDT.

Centro is expected to release details of the re-jigged agreement this afternoon.