Centro Properties Group (CNP.AU) shares have risen by 3.1 percent as the company announced it is engaging in new negotiations with possible new investors interested to acquire its business and assets.

Centro Properties is up at 16.5 Australian cents as of 12 noon in Sydney with the company's disclosure that it had been approached by a number of parties with expressions of interest for its businesses and assets.

In a statement, Centro will start to evaluate these expressions of interest and is now in assessment mode.

"The significant interest in Centro's businesses over recent months has been encouraging," Centro Chairman Paul Cooper said in the statement today.

In a related Bloomberg report, the company is seeking buyers for more than A$4 billion ($4 billion) of assets, a source familiar with the matter last week said.

The Australian shopping-mall owner has given management control to creditors in 2008

Centro has set a Dec. 25 deadline for indicative bids for more than 40 properties, including the Galleria in Perth and The Glen in Melbourne, said the person, who declined to be identified because the plans aren't public. Prospective buyers will be given access to financial information on the assets in the next few weeks, the person said last week.

Centro, which manages an A$18.6 billion collection of 712 shopping centers in Australia, New Zealand ,and the U.S., said in July it was in talks with lenders about debt due next year. The company had A$18.4 billion of debt as of June 30, company filings show, as the value of its properties fell and debt costs soared following a A$9 billion buying spree in 2006 and 2007.

Australia's 16 listed property trusts reported combined losses of A$19.5 billion and write-downs of A$21.7 billion in the year to June 30, 2009, after their strategy of borrowing to fund overseas investments backfired when property values tumbled and borrowing costs spiked during the credit crunch.