The Lowy family’s investment vehicle has indicated that it is looking to sell the family’s entire 7 per cent stake in Westfield Retail Trust and raise about $665 million.

UBS will sell 214.8 million shares, which is about 7 per cent of the total number of issued shares, in WRT at $3.09 per share. The sale of share will be managed under the fixed price book-building process. The report about the sale of stake comes just a day after Steven and Peter Lowy, the co-chief executives of the company, said that the Westfield group’s net profit rose by 18 per cent to $1.7 billion during the entire 2012.

The Westfield Retail Trust has a 50 per cent stake in Westfield's Australian and NZ centres. The Westfield Retail Trust said that its net profit fell from $849.1 million in 2011 to $830.8 million for the 2012 year mainly due to a fall in some property prices. The group said that the results were amid a difficult retail market condition in Australia and indicated that the fall in Australia is being offset by sales in the United States and Britain.

The Lowy family maintains assets in diverse fields and it is selling its direct holdings. It holds about 8 per cent stake in the parent group Westfield.