by Calculated Risk on 12/17/2007 09:38:00 AM

From Bloomberg: Centro Slumps 76% on Struggles to Refinance Debt (hat tip CG and Brian)

Centro Properties Group, the owner of 700 U.S. shopping malls ... say[s] it's struggling to refinance debt ...

Melbourne-based Centro suspended dividends and said in a statement that it may have to sell assets, after lenders set a Feb. 15 deadline to negotiate maturing debt. Traditional sources of funding are ``shut for business,'' Chairman Brian Healey said in the statement.
...
``We never expected nor could reasonably anticipate that the sources of funding that have historically been available to us and many other companies would shut for business,'' Centro's Healey said in the statement.

No one could have known.

UPDATE: Last week I mentioned MBS (apartments) in Texas was delinquent on many loans. The WSJ had a story on Saturday: In Texas, MBS apartment Titan Battles Defaults

Massive Texas apartment-complex owner and operator MBS Cos. is in danger of defaulting on nearly $400 million in loans and has sought bankruptcy-law protection for many of its properties to stave off foreclosure.