Shopping centre operator Westfield will meet its full year guidance despite a delay in opening its World Trade Center flagship.

Westfield Corporation, which spun off the now separately listed Scentre Group in 2014, made a net profit for the six months to June 30 of $US466 million.

Funds from operations of $US380.3 million were in line with its forecasts.

The company, which is focused on shopping centres in the United States, UK and Europe, confirmed its full year distribution guidance of 25.1 cents per security.

The opening of the $US1.4 billion Westfield World Trade Center, which is being constructed by the New York Port Authority and then leased by Westfield, has been pushed back to the first half of the next financial year.

“We see the impact as immaterial,” co-chief executive Steven Lowy said, adding that the shopping centre had been fully leased.

“I wouldn’t factor any earnings impact into it.”

Westfield has started $US1.6 billion of the $US2.5 billion of development projects it has planned for 2015, including expansion or redevelopment of centres in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and San Diego.

“The benefits of our restructure last year can be seen in the significant progress being made on our $11.4 billion development program,” Steven Lowy and co-chief executive Peter Lowy said.

Westfield expects to start extending Westfield London in the second half of 2015, making it the largest shopping centre in Europe, and is continuing pre-development activity on the construction of 2,500 apartments at its two sites in the city.

“We’re working in a very solid market. There’s a serious undersupply of apartments in London,” Steven Lowy said.

“The wind is behind our sales but, as it is a new business for us, we are working on how best to extract value in the long term.”

 

By Stuart Condie