The Centro Properties sale of its 600 U.S. shopping centers and 112 overseas malls has attracted interest from six high-profile local and overseas companies.

[Get this delivered to your inbox for FREE. Subscribe to our Real Estate Newsletter.]

The Melbourne-based company is selling its retail properties to pay for its $18.4 billion debt with $5.5 billion of the money due for payment in 11 months. Under Australian bankruptcy laws, liquidation is allowed thus also remains a possibility. The company’s debt holders have also shifted to hedge funds and private-equity firms who bought Centro's heavily discounted debt.

The top bidders include: Blackstone Group LP ; a group led by NRDC Equity Partners LLC and Australian investor Lend Lease Corp.? Gazit Globe Ltd.; Gazit's U.S. affiliate Equity One Inc. and Charter Hall Retail REIT.

Most of the company’s 600 shopping centers in the United States come with grocery stores or discount retailers, and 112 centers in Australia and New Zealand. The company’s case was one of the first major casualties of 2007, unable to pay for billions of maturing debt. At the end of the latest fiscal year, the company pegged its American portfolio to be worth $9.5 billion with Brooksville Square Shopping Center in Brooksville, Florida as one its major properties.

More from IBT Real Estate:

Newsletter: To receive real estate update, sign up here