May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Lend Lease Corp., Australia's largest property developer, offered to buy General Property Trust, valuing the country's fourth-biggest real estate investment trust at A$6.6 billion ($4.6 billion).

Lend Lease bid A$3.30 a share for Sydney-based General Property, according to a statement distributed at a press briefing. The combination would be valued at more than A$10.5 billion, ranking it among Australia's 15 biggest companies.

Property companies are reorganizing their businesses to get control of assets that earn them fees for providing management services. The risk of losing control of such assets was highlighted last year when Westfield Trust acquired AMP Shopping Centre Trust, ousting AMP Ltd. as manager.

``The proposal has put General Property into play, which puts at risk the management fee income that Lead Lease receives from General Property,'' said Paul Snushall, an analyst at Merrill Lynch and Co. in Sydney in a report.

Lend Lease manages General Property's A$7.7 billion portfolio of hotels, shopping malls, offices and industrial sites. Buying the trust would secure Lend Lease income that last year totaled A$280 million.

Lend Lease obtained less than a tenth of the shares in General Property Trust it offered to buy on Thursday from investors at A$3.30 a share, people familiar with the plan said.

Shares of Lend Lease and General Property were halted from trading on Friday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Fenner in Sydney at rfenner@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 24, 2004 01:48 EDT