News
40 Days and 40 Nights
March 2, 2011
| That's how long GGP's Sandeep Mathrani has been the CEO of the country's largest shopping mall chain, now out of bankruptcy and shaping up its portfolio to compete with other owners. Sandeep led his first earnings call yesterday morning, saying GGP wants to selloff about 19 properties to shrink its portfolio to 150. | |
 | |
| Sandeep has visited more than half of the malls in GGP's portfolio, currently about 86% leased. It plans to increase occupancy by 2% to 3% by the end of the year, plus raise the average rent 6% as tenants renew leases. With 25 of the top 100 malls in the country (like Water Tower Place, above, and Oak Brook Center, below), GGP's current average sale price of $446/SF. | |
 | |
| GGP is aiming to refinance parts of its portfolio to reduce interest rates on its $18B in debt by 10 to 15 bps. The company plans to acquire about $1.6B of strategic assets to bring in more profit. The 19 properties it plans to sell will be those outside of its core competency of malls, such as strip centers, stand-alone stores, andoffice buildings. The company has already spun off its planned community division into Howard Hughes Corp, and JLL acquired its third-party management arm last summer. |
