Centro Properties, the debt-laden Australian shopping mall owner, yesterday admitted its plan to recapitalise would not be satisfied by asset sales alone and that efforts to raise new equity in the next few months are likely to fail.

The company was one of Australia's first global credit crunch victims when last December it defaulted on A$1.3bn (US$1.1bn) of loans and was forced into an informal "work-out" by its bankers.