GGP to Simon: $10B Offer ‘Not Sufficient’

February 17, 2010
By Allison Landa, News Editor

Courtesy Flickr Creative Commons user LancerE

General Growth Properties has a message for fellow mall operator Simon Property Group: Thanks, but you’ve got competition.

The country’s second largest mall operator, which is attempting to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, on Tuesday responded to Simon’s $10 billion takeover bid in a brief and blunt missive included in a statement.

“We and our board of directors have given considerable thought to your indication of interest and have concluded based on discussions with other interested parties that it is not sufficient to preempt the process we are undertaking to explore all avenues to emerge from Chapter 11,” General Growth chief executive officer Adam Metz wrote to Simon chairman and CEO David Simon.

However, Metz stopped short of fully rejecting the offer, saying instead that the company plans to “commence a process to explore several potential options … including a sale of the entire Company as you have proposed as well as a capital raise.”

As part of this process, GGP will provide contenders by the beginning of March a detailed slate of company information including a confidential information memorandum, financial projections, and asset-level information as well as an access to an electronic data room. Metz indicated that this data should prompt Simon to raise the amount of its offer.

“Again, we appreciate your interest and we recognize the potential value that Simon could bring as an option for the Company,” he wrote. “The Company intends to pursue the process described above and we look forward to your participation.”

General Growth declared bankruptcy in April 2009 after failing to restructure 27 billion in debt. The company owns more than 200 properties in 44 states.