General Growth Still In Talks To Extend $900 Million In Loans

   DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

Shopping center operator General Growth Properties (GGP) is still in talks with lenders to extend the deadline on $900 million in mortgages after negotiations over the weekend failed to produce a required unanimous agreement.

Shares slid 16% to $1.52 as the uncertainty about the company's future continues.

Talks over the weekend to extend the loan, which originally was due Nov. 28 but was extended by two weeks to last Friday, had been stymied by Citigroup Inc. (C), according to The Wall Street Journal. While six other lenders in the loan had agreed to a long-term extension, all must agree for the pact to be completed.

If no agreement is reached, the company's banks could declare it in default on that debt, triggering cross defaults on other General Growth debts and forcing the company to seek bankruptcy protection.

Citigroup scuttled the real-estate-investment trust's bid last month for a long-term extension of the debt by demanding changes to terms on an unrelated $2.6 billion credit line and term loan that General Growth landed in 2006, people familiar with the matter told the Journal. Citigroup supplied more than $100 million of that 2006 loan.

In talks over the weekend, Citigroup made additional demands each time General Growth conceded to other requests, those people said. The loans are backed by two luxury malls on the Las Vegas Strip: Fashion Show mall and the Shoppes at the Palazzo.

On Friday, General Growth refinanced almost $900 million in unrelated debt. The company has amassed a $27 billion debt load amid an acquisition spree in recent years.

-By Tess Stynes, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2473; [e-mail]

(Kris Hudson of The Wall Street Journal contributed to this report.)

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