CHICAGO-Melbourne, Australia-based Centro Properties Group is“very close” to solving a massive debt crisis, which could involvea split and/or an IPO, CEO Robert Tsenin told a group of insuranceexecutives here during a private conference Wednesday evening. Hewas the keynote speaker at the annual real estate conference forNew York City-based Marsh Inc., held at Chicago’s InterContinentalHotel.

The troubles at Centro, an Australian Real Estate InvestmentTrust, are well known; it was one of the first global real estatefirms to claim overleveraging for its $27 billion in real estateassets, about 712 shopping centers in the United States andAustralia. Tsenin, a former Goldman Sachs director, was brought inearly this year to untangle a complex, multi-tiered management anddebt structure, which had thrived during the heady mid-decade yearsbut crashed when financing dried up in 2007.

The trust has all it needs to succeed, Tsenin said at theconference. The 112 Australian properties are leased at almost 100%with a net income growth of almost 4% in the past 12 months. Evenin the United States, where net income growth is flat, the trust’s600 properties are leased at about 88%, not a bad showing whenresearchers claim an average national retail vacancy rate of about11%.