General Growth Reaches Agreement on 30 More Properties $$

• Posted by ToddSullivan
• on December 8th, 2009

This bankruptcy is flying by now…

From Bloomberg

General Growth Properties Inc., (GGWPQ)the second-largest U.S. mall owner, said about 30 more properties will join its restructuring plan and it will have enough money to cover a $51.6 million cash shortfall next year.

The addition of the new properties will be considered at a Dec. 15 hearing seeking confirmation of the plan, General Growth said in papers filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The plan already would restructure $9.7 billion of mortgage debt owed on 92 shopping centers and office buildings.

General Growth didn’t give an updated figure for the mortgage debt that would be reorganized. The Chicago-based company provided financial projections in a separate document, saying it will leave bankruptcy with $51.6 million less cash than needed in 2010, mostly because of a $150 million payment for secured debt on its Ala Moana property in Hawaii.

The company said it plans to fund mortgage-restructuring payments, accrued interest and other costs upon its emergence from bankruptcy with income generated from operations. Of the $423.2 million in such costs, $107.4 million is to pay pre- bankruptcy claims.

“GGP has sufficient cash to fund the emergence Costs of the Plan Debtors as well as the estimated $51.6 million shortfall in 2010,” lawyers for the company wrote. General Growth said that on a pro forma basis, including all estimated emergence costs, it will have $192.3 million in cash available at the end of 2010.

From Reuters:

Simon Property’s (SPG) advisers in the last 30 days approached General Growth’s advisers in what the source described as “nothing more than informal inquiry,” with no direct negotiations.

Simon, the No. 1 U.S. mall owner, has hired investment bank Lazard Ltd (LAZ.N) and law firm Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Krantz to help explore a possible bid.

Brookfield (BAM), which was one of the parties that came forward along with Goldman Sachs to offer debtor-in-possession financing to General Growth, has kept in touch with the bankrupt mall operator over the course of the year, the source said.

Brookfield told Reuters on Monday that it has become a significant creditor of General Growth and had “held discussions about assisting the company in its reorganization and providing it with capital in that regard.

More tonight on the show at 8:30…

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