General Growth Properties expects to file a plan of reorganization with a bankruptcy court by July 9, the Chicago-based company said late Tuesday. The company also requested an extension on exclusivity.
The company will file its plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York. It will ask the court to grant an extension of its exclusive period to file the plan to October 18 from July 15 and extend the deadline to solicit other plans to December 16 from September 15.
Last December, the court authorized the company’s shareholders and board of directors to declare a dividend of $0.19 per share. The company paid the dividend in order to keep its REIT tax status.
General Growth, which owns more than 200 shopping malls, filed for bankruptcy in April 2009 after struggling to manage the massive $27 billion debt burden it had accumulated with large acquisitions and failing to execute several exchange offers. It won a waiver from creditors that would have forgiven missed payments for the rest of the year, but that waiver was conditional on the success of the failed exchange offers. General Growth obtained approximately $375 million in DIP financing from Pershing Square Capital Management, the investment group headed by activist investor William Ackman.
