Westfield Group
The multinational company was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and had interests in and operated one of the world's largest shopping centre portfolios with investment interests in 103 shopping centres across Australia, the United States, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Italy, France, Sweden, Austria, Germany, Croatia, Poland, Czech Republic and Brazil, encompassing around 23,000 retail outlets and total assets under management in excess of A$63 billion.[4] The company was floated on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1960 and built another five centres in New South Wales before expanding into Victoria and Queensland in 1966–67.[5] In the 1990s, Westfield began a major expansion to New Zealand, where they mostly bought existing shopping centres of the Fletchers company, progressively rebranding them.[7] On 9 May 2006, Westfield announced the sale of eight United States shopping centres which it deemed to fit outside its strategic plan, to Centro Properties Group.This feature was removed in 2016 due to concerns that the system could be used to track the movements of others by giving the wrong car numberplate on registration of the phone number.Westfield malls became by far the most numerous chain in New Zealand, with six of its 12 centres in Auckland, including their largest development located in Albany.Retailers suggested that when centres were acquired there should be more cooperation between the new operators and existing tenants in bringing shops up to the corporate standards of the Westfield Group, and increases in rent (required to operate a shopping centre with high standards of fittings and services) should be staged with the required improvements in fittings.