Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with words executive+selling. 2 news.

CENTRO Properties Group, the Australian owner of US malls which lost 80 percent of its market value last week, has hired three advisers to help it refinance debt and negotiate funding options that may include selling assets. Lazard Carnegie Wylie will "facilitate any transaction" and find investors to help repay or settle bank debt, Jim Kelly, a spokesman for Centro in Sydney, said yesterday, Bloomberg News reported. KPMG will negotiate with Centro's bankers to help refinance A$3.9 billion (US$3.4 billion) by a February 15 deadline and Freehills will act as the company's legal advisers, Kelly said. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Scott said last week he may sell some of Centro's more than A$25 billion of shopping centers in the US, Australia and New Zealand after more than A$4 billion was wiped from the company's market value, making it Asia's worst casualty so far of the global credit squeeze. Melbourne-based Centro's eight most valuable properties are in Australia and

John Thain, the new chief executive of Merrill Lynch, yesterday managed to raise $7.5 billion in cash to shore up the investment bank's damaged finances by selling part of its lending business and a stake in itself at a substantial discount.$