Centro Properties Group’s underlying annual profit has fallen 92 per cent due to its sale of assets in the United States and the strength of the Australian dollar.

The shopping centre owner is undertaking a restructure to deal with its debt problems, caused by the global financial crisis, that will see it streamlined into a new publicly listed Australian shopping centre owner and manager.

Accounting standards required Centro to report its financial results for the year to June 30 on a liquidation basis, resulting in a $2.74 billion net profit for the period, up from a $652.7 million loss in the previous year.

The net profit figure includes $1.33 billion in adjustments recognising the liquidation value, plus $817 million in proceeds from the sale of its US assets and related currency translations.

The company has $2.9 billion of debt maturing in December this year, and without a restructure would likely be placed in administration.

Its underlying profit for the year to June 30 was $14.6 million, down from $173.8 million in the previous corresponding period.

Centro said the fall was due to the disposal of its US assets in February this year, meaning no income was received from those assets for the final four months of the financial year.

The income it did receive from the US was impacted by the higher Australian dollar, plus interest rates on Centro’s debt were higher than in the previous year.

Centro’s net equity attributable to its security holders was negative $1.7 billion at June 30, illustrating the need for the restructure, chairman Paul Cooper said.

“Even after the moderate recovery in Australian asset values during the past year reflected in the improvement in investment property values, the debt is simply too large and cannot be refinanced when it matures in just under four months time,” Mr Cooper said.

The value of Centro’s properties at June 30 was $7.1 billion, up 4.3 per cent from a year earlier.

Net operating income from the Australian assets grew 3.6 per cent in the year.

Retail sales growth of 2.9 per cent was down from four per cent in the previous year, due to falls in sales by department stores.

The growth in retail sales was attributable to sales by supermarkets, which account for 45 per cent of Centro’s sales.

Centro units gained 0.3 of a cent to 4.3 cents on Monday.