Updated at 2:13 PM
(Crain's) — General Growth Properties Inc. has come under fire for asking to be included on the short-selling ban list while its executives were dumping shares.Proxy adviser Glass Lewis & Co., in a note to investors Wednesday, said the Chicago-based mall owner's action amounted to “rigging the system” and called for General Growth to be removed from the no-short list, according to a report by Bloomberg News.
The short-selling ban was due to expire Friday, but has been extended.
“Since electing to be added to the no-short list of ‘financial' companies, General insiders have sold $40 million in shares,” wrote Todd Fernandez, a senior research analyst with San Francisco-based Glass Lewis, according to Bloomberg. “We see that as rigging the system and hope General would do shareholders a favor and remove itself from the list.”
This is another piece of bad news for the company. We summed up the issues that have hit the firm in recent weeks yesterday.
As I write this, General Growth's stock is down 35 percent on the day to $9.46 per share. It bottomed at $8.38 per share earlier today--about $6 below its previous 52-week low.
Update: Bloomberg has more.