DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

Mall owner Simon Property Group Inc. (SPG) priced its planned stock offering which will boost shares outstanding by at least 6.6% and help the company pay down debt at a time rivals are doing the same.

The offering from the largest U.S. public real-estate investment trust coincides with the planned sale of $500 million of senior notes. The sale of the notes and 15 million shares were announced late Thursday and put pressure on Simon's stock, as many offerings that increase share count do.

The stock was recently down 3.2% at $33.30. The share portion of the offering was priced at $31.50, an 8.4% discount to Thursday's closing price.

The nearly $1 billion of proceeds expected from the offerings, the stock portion of which could be increased by up to 15% depending on investor demand, will be used to partially repay the $1 billion outstanding balance of its $3.5 billion unsecured credit line and for general corporate purposes.

Jim Sullivan, an analyst with Green Street Advisors Inc., said late Thursday that the offering could serve as a litmus test "in the depth of the appetite of the public market to give capital to those who deserve it."

Simon owns and manages more than 300 malls and it is in better financial shape than rivals. Several cash-strapped mall owners are attempting to sell malls to pay their debts. Chief among them is General Growth Properties Inc. (GGP), which has warned it might file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

-By Mike Barris, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5658; mike.barris@dowjones.com