NEW YORK CITY-Confirming earlier reports, Centro Properties Group, with US headquarters here, said Tuesday it had entered into a stock purchase agreement with the Blackstone Group in a deal valued at $9.4 billion. Blackstone will take ownership of Centro’s 588 US shopping malls and its US services businesses; a Blackstone spokesman tells GlobeSt.com the company has no comment on the deal.

Centro’s US retail portfolio totals 96 million square feet of gross leasable area, spread across 39 states. According to Blackstone’s 2010 annual report, the company’s real estate segment had $33.2 billion of assets under management globally as of Dec. 31.

Separately, Centro has reached a deal with holders of about 73% of its debt to cancel all of the company’s senior debt in exchange for its 108 Australian retail properties. The deal would leave Centro with $100 million to distribute to shareholders.

The total equity proceeds from the US asset sale for Australia-based Centro, Centro Retail Trust and its other managed funds will be $1.38 billion, the company said Tuesday. About $600 million from the sale, which is expected to close by mid-year, will be used to pay down debt on Centro’s Australian assets.

Further, Centro plans to combine all of its Australian funds into one after the sale of its US assets closes. The amalgamated fund would be created to establish a portfolio of “high quality Australian regional and sub-regional shopping centers,” according to Centro. The company believes the outcome of all three transactions will deliver “the maximum value to all stakeholders,” CEO Robert Tsenin says in a statement.

“We have previously said that the capital structure of Centro is unsustainable in its current form,” Centro chairman Paul Cooper says in a statement. If the senior debt restructuring is approved, Cooper adds, it will “return Centro to a positive equity position and potentially allow Centro to return some value to its stakeholders.”

Moelis & Co. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC acted as financial advisers to Centro on the sale of its US assets and businesses. Freehills and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates acted as legal advisers to Centro. Moelis & Company and Lazard continue as restructuring advisers to Centro. Blackstone’s advisors were Wells Fargo, Deutsche Bank Securities and Barclays Capital, while its attorney in the deal were Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLP.