New York’s Brookfield Property Partners L.P. plans to acquire the 66 percent it doesn’t already own of General Growth Properties Inc. for $9.25 billion in cash plus stock, the two companies said Tuesday.
Chain Store Age, an online retail business website, estimated the total value of the deal, including stock, is about $15.3 billion.
General Growth, or GGP for short, is based in Chicago and owns Manchester’s Buckland Hills mall and Waterbury’s Brass Mill Center, among other retail properties across the country. It also plans to develop a 700,000-square-foot retail center in Norwalk, known as the SoNo Collection, which it has described as a marketplace that will offer restaurants, exercise and wellness classes, and upscale fashion retailers.
GGP bills itself as the second-largest retail property owner in the country, after Simon Property Group, based in Indiana.
The acquisition deal comes four months after General Growth rejected an initial $7.4 billion offer from Brookfield, which already owns 34 percent of GGP.
The deal is subject to the approval of GGP shareholders representing a majority of the outstanding GGP common stock not owned by Brookfield. The acquisition is expected to close early in the third quarter of 2018, Brookfield CEO Brian Kingston said in comments accompanying the acquisition announcement.
“We are pleased to have reached an agreement and are excited about combining Brookfield’s access to large-scale capital and deep operating expertise across multiple real estate sectors with GGP’s portfolio of irreplaceable retail assets,” Kingston said.
Daniel Hurwitz, GGP’s lead director and chairman of its special committee negotiating with Brookfield, said that the improved proposal provides GGP shareholders with “upside potential through ownership in a globally diversified real estate company.”
With an ownership interest in roughly $90 billion in total assets and annual net operating income of more than $4 billion, the combined company will be “one of the world’s largest commercial real estate enterprises,” Kingston added.
Under terms of the deal, GGP shareholders will be entitled to choose to receive, for each GGP common share, either $23.50 in cash or one share of Brookfield stock.
Following completion of the transaction, GGP shareholders will own about 26 percent of the combined company, with Brookfield shareholders owning the controlling interest.
A GGP official did not immediately reply Tuesday to a request for comment on the likely effect of the deal on its Connecticut malls.
Brookfield Property owns a portfolio of office and retail properties, as well as multifamily, industrial, self-storage, student housing and other assets.