A new plan by mall owner General Growth Properties Inc. to exit bankruptcy resolves some uncertainty rival bidder Simon Property
Group Inc. has criticized, Simon CEO David Simon says.
The cash payment matches a provision of a competing bid by Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group Inc., which has offered
to buy its biggest competitor for more than $10 billion and pay all unsecured creditors.
Shopping mall operator General Growth Properties Inc. will have four more months to sort out its exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy
and weigh buyout offers.
The Federal Trade Commission has contacted Gap Inc. about Simon Property Group's proposed acquisition of Prime Outlets
Acquisition Co.
General Growth Properties Inc. asked a judge to block a shareholder lawsuit accusing its board of improperly rejecting an
acquisition bid from Simon Property Group Inc.
The battle for General Growth Properties Inc., owner of more than 200 U.S. malls, is turning into the biggest real estate
skirmish since the sale of Sam Zell’s Equity Office Properties Trust.
The bid by Simon Property was an “initial salvo” and the Brookfield plan likely will prompt a new offer from the Indianapolis-based
mall owner, real estate research analyst says.
The plan by Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management would give General Growth Properties a higher valuation than a $10 billion
takeover bid by Simon Property Group.
Simon Property Group Inc. already is known for playing hardball with mall tenants over rent. So national retailers like The
Gap Inc. and Limited Brands Inc. will be bracing for future lease negotiations if the nation’s largest mall owner succeeds
in a $10 billion bid to take over its nearest rival, the bankrupt General Growth Properties Inc.
Simon’s warning was delivered in a letter sent to General Growth a day after the company essentially rebuffed Simon’s hostile
takeover bid.
Locally based Broadbent Co.’s legal battles with lenders have escalated, pushing one of its 34 strip malls into bankruptcy
and prompting Huntington National Bank and PNC Bank to sue to collect principal owed on loans tied to four more.
The company raised its average rent per square foot at both regional malls and outlet centers even as U.S. consumer spending
flagged.
Quarterly revenue remained flat at about $1 billion, but profit fell 41 percent, from $196.4 million to $115.9 million.
Unibail-Rodamco SE, Europe’s biggest shopping-center owner, has agreed to pay Simon Property Group and Ivanhoe Cambridge Inc.
$981 million for stakes in seven malls in France and Poland.
Mall retailer The Finish Line Inc. has agreed to forfeit a potentially lucrative tax-abatement deal because it won’t be able
to meet a 2008 promise to create almost 200 jobs and invest $24 million at its Indianapolis headquarters.
Retail sales rose 3.6 percent from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, compared with a 3.2-percent drop in the year-ago period, according
to figures from MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse.
Wall Street analysts have described the potential sale of Chicago-based General Growth Properties as a “once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity” for a company to make “the deal of the decade” in the shopping-mall business.
Adding the 22-mall portfolio of Baltimore-based Prime Outlets will give Simon a total of 63 outlet malls with more than 25
million square feet of space.
General Growth Properties Inc., the nation’s second-largest shopping mall operator, said lenders have agreed
to restructure about $9.7 billion in debt. The agreements could put a damper on the acquisition aspirations of rival Simon
Property Group Inc.
Hot Box Pizza plans to open a downtown location in the Harness Factory Lofts building, and WineTyme, a new local shop selling
wines, craft beers and gourmet food, is coming to Fishers.
