General Growth Properties (GGP) Continues To Negotiate On Outstanding Loans

General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP) is continuing negotiations with lenders as the mall owner seeking to extend payment deadlines on several expiring loans or face a possible bankruptcy filing.

General Growth Properties has warned that it might need to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection if it fails to win deadline extensions on debts coming due.

General Growth manages more than 200 U.S. malls, carries $27 billion in debt amassed in several buyouts over the past five years. GGP now has loans coming due on a weekly basis, but it lacks sufficient capital or borrowing capacity to pay them.

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that General Growth had at least four major loans either coming due or past due. The largest is a package of two loans totaling $900 million for which two luxury malls on the Las Vegas Strip are pledged as collateral. These loans were to expire Thursday.

General Growth also continued talks yesterday with lenders on a $95 million loan on the Oakwood Center mall in New Orleans. That loan expired Monday, but the two sides entered three consecutive 24-hour extensions to continue negotiating.

A separate $225 million loan, arranged by Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is past due. Since the Goldman loan expired in early February, Goldman has refused to grant an extension unless General Growth makes concessions, including paying a higher fee.

General Growth's stock has fallen over the past month and with no light at the end of the tunnel, I would be hesitant to jump into the equity pool.

You May Also Be Interested In

• YZi Labs ends proxy fight with CEA Industries in board deal
• Morgan Stanley Upgrades Charles River Labs (CRL) to Overweight, 'strong uptick in biopharma funding beginning to transition into RFPs and bookings'
• Office Properties Income Trust exits Chapter 11 with $714M debt cut