Billionaire Frank Lowy's 55 years at the top of his Australian shopping centre empire are coming to an end.
Mr Lowy, who celebrated his 85th birthday on Thursday, will step down as Scentre Group chairman at the company's annual general meeting in May 2016.
Mr Lowy, one of Australia's richest and most prominent businessmen, co-founded shopping centre giant Westfield. He will continue to serve as chairman of Westfield, and will remain on the board of Scentre.
"It is never easy to leave a role like this but I do so in the knowledge that Scentre is in an extremely strong position and that its future is full of opportunity for further growth and success," Mr Lowy said in a statement on Friday.
Scentre was established in 2014 when Westfield was split into two companies - one overseeing its Australian and New Zealand operations, and the other controlling its ever-expanding global presence, primarily in the US, Britain and Europe.
Frank Lowy was a teenage Holocaust survivor and later an Israeli freedom fighter, but has since grown to be one of Australia's richest persons, estimated by Forbes in 2015 to be worth $US4.9 billion.
His business empire started from just one small shopping mall, called Westfield Place, built on farmland in Blacktown in Sydney's outer west.
Mr Lowy arrived in Australia in 1952 and the next year teamed up with another Hungarian Jewish refugee, John Saunders, to set up the Westfield business. The two floated their company on the stock exchange in 1960.
The group expanded rapidly - first locally and then into the United States, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, mostly taking over and refashioning existing malls.
Mr Lowy bought out his partner in 1987.
Apart from his business interests, Mr Lowy has used his passionate energy to revitalise Australian soccer and also set up an influential foreign policy think tank.
In 2003, he became chairman of a new reformist board of the broke and internationally isolated Soccer Australia.
Within a few years, the national men's and women's competitions were successfully launched and Australia moved to the Asian Football Confederation, giving it access to top level international competitions at the club and national levels.
In 2015, the year Mr Lowy decided to step down as chairman, Australia hosted and won the Asian Cup while the Matildas reached the quarter finals of the women's World Cup.
He suffered a major health scare earlier this year, when he slipped and fell heavily from the podium during the A-League grand final ceremony at Melbourne's AAMI Park.
Six weeks later, tests revealed a blood clot in his brain that had to be operated on urgently, and he found himself in a French hospital emergency room.
He made a full recovery.
Mr Lowy has donated millions to medical research in Australia.
He has also helped set up the Lowy Institute for International Policy, a think tank that focuses on Australia's place in the world, and a similar body in Tel Aviv.
Scentre Group said on Friday the Lowy family will remain a key investor in the company.
Deputy chairman Brian Schwartz will replace Mr Lowy as Scentre chairman.
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