General Growth has wrapped up perhaps the greatest comeback story in the history of commercial real estate by officially completing its restructuring and emerging from Chapter 11.
Text of GGP's official announcement is below:
General Growth Properties Completes Financial Restructuring and Emerges from Chapter 11
CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--General Growth Properties, Inc. (NYSE: GGP) today announced it has successfully completed the final steps of its financial restructuring and has emerged from Chapter 11. The emergence marks the conclusion of one of the largest and most complex bankruptcy cases in U.S. corporate history.
"Today marks the successful end of one chapter in GGP's history and the beginning of another,” said Adam Metz, chief executive officer of GGP. “Over the past nineteen months, we have taken extraordinary steps to remake GGP's entire financial structure while at the same time refocusing our operations across all of our shopping mall properties. I am especially grateful to our employees for their commitment and dedication throughout this challenging process. We continue the important work of executing on the many operational and financial improvements we initiated during the reorganization process.”
In its historic restructuring, GGP successfully:
* Consensually restructured approximately $15 billion of project-level debt
* Recapitalized with $6.8 billion in new equity capital
* Paid all creditor claims in full
* Achieved substantial recovery for equity holders
As part of its plan of reorganization, GGP has split itself into two separate and independent publicly traded corporations. GGP shareholders as of the record date of November 1, 2010 received common stock in both companies. The new GGP, which will commence trading tomorrow on The New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “GGP,” is the second-largest shopping mall owner and operator in the country, with more than 183 regional malls in 43 states. The spin-off company, The Howard Hughes Corporation, consists of GGP's portfolio of master planned communities and other strategic real estate development opportunities. This company will trade under the ticker symbol “HHC” on The New York Stock Exchange.
UBS Investment Bank and Miller Buckfire & Co., LLC are serving as financial advisors to General Growth Properties in connection with the restructuring, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP are acting as legal counsel to the Company.
ABOUT “New” GGP
“New” GGP will have ownership and management interest in more than 183 regional shopping malls in 43 states as well as ownership interests in other rental properties.