March 19, 2010

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Allan Gropper was told by General Growth on Thursday that because of the complications and size of more than 6.5 billion dollars of amendments from its associates Fairholme Capital Management and Brookfield Asset Management, the company needs extension of time to finalize its accords for its plan to say goodbye to bankruptcy.

A lawyer for General Growth told that by Friday, the scheme was to be filed with the court, and instead by the end of next week it would be ready to file. It would impel the hearing date on the scheme back from its scheduled April 13 date to a date not yet finalized, although the judge raised the chances of April 15.

According to a recent Morningstar report, the Simon Property Group’s offer is $10 billion which averages to a share of about $9. The offer from Fairholme and Pershing gives GGP 10 dollars per share for the restructured firm and a share of 5 dollars for General Growth Opportunities a new annex. The Simon and Fairholme offers can’t be equated because they are grouping different pools of estates are the words of Raymond James analyst, R.J. Milligan.

On Thursday, Shares of General Growth in the New York Stock Exchange were up 2.5 %, or 40 cents, at 16.24 dollars. Simon shares were down 1 % at 84.79 dollar.