Shares in Centro Properties, the indebted Australian property trust, on Thursday jumped a third after its new chief executive said there would be no asset fire sale and expressed confidence banks would be repaid.

Centro, which last month became Australia’s worst casualty of the global credit crunch when it defaulted, has a February 15 deadline to refinance A$3.9bn ($3.4bn) of debt and is considering asset sales as well as a fresh equity infusion from new and existing shareholders to repair its balance sheet.