(This story, in slightly different form, originally appeared in Incisive Media's Daily Business Review.)

MIAMI-Centro Properties, a troubled Australian owner of retail centers, has pledged its large US portfolio, including dozens of properties in Florida, as security for a $3.4 billion refinancing. Centro, which bills itself as the fifth-largest US retail property owner, arranged the refinanced debt with existing lenders JPMorgan Chase Bank, Bank of America and KeyBank. In Florida, mortgages of $370 million and $332.5 million were recorded last month in Broward County with Centro NP Residual Presidential Plaza LLC of Delaware as the borrower of record. Attorney Fredric Altschuler of Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft in New York, who prepared the mortgages for Centro, declined comment.

Centro is attempting to sell several assets nationwide as part of the "natural culling process," according to company spokeswoman Stacy Slater in New York. She declined to identify the properties.

The Mall at 163rd Street in North Miami Beach and Presidential Plaza in North Lauderdale are among Centro's South Florida properties. It owns a total of 44 properties throughout the state. "They are a very significant retail player, and the South and Southeast represent the most concentration for Centro," says Mark Gilbert, senior director of Cushman & Wakefield's financial services group in Miami.