CENTRO Properties Group, the Australian owner of about 650 malls in the United States, has won a seven-month extension on a deadline to repay creditors owed as much as A$6.6 billion (US$6.2 billion) in debt.

Australian lenders and US note holders owed A$2.8 billion agreed to extend Wednesday's deadline to December 15, Centro said yesterday in a statement to the Australian stock exchange.

The debt reprieve is the fourth granted to Centro since December, when the seizure in global debt markets shut funding avenues for the company, leading to a A$4 billion plunge in its market value, Bloomberg News reported. Centro is trying to sell stakes in its funds so it can retain a collection of malls that stretches from Perth, Western Australia, to Yonkers, New York.

"There is a 'too big to fail' thing here, and the banks would have pretty big negative repercussions for themselves if they brought Centro down," Andrew Rosivach, an analyst at Credit Suisse Group in Sydney, said yesterday.

Australian property values would drop, lowering the worth of collateral backing loans to Centro if the company collapsed, leading to the liquidation of its A$9.5 billion business, Rosivach wrote in a report.

Centro's stock has declined 95 percent the past year, slashing the company's market value to A$397 million.

Yesterday's extension has been granted on the condition Centro gives its lenders the right to sell assets and take control of cash and US mortgages if terms of the loan are breached, the statement said.

Creditors, including JPMorgan Chase & Co and National Australia Bank Ltd, must agree by May 30 to a process for further refinancing or asset sales, as well as security over some US assets, the statement said.

Centro must also finalize a A$100 million facility with Australian banks and US bond holders by May 30 which will be used to finance fees and higher lending costs incurred because of the extension, the company said.

Yesterday's reprieve validates a September 30 deadline on about A$2.5 billion of debt associated with Centro Retail Group and owed to US and European creditors, which was granted in February provided Australian banks and the note holders granted an extension at least as long.

Centro also owes about A$1.2 billion on other funds and syndicates.