Simon Property Group bids for General Growth Properties for $10 billion

Simon Property Group announced Tuesday that it has offered a bid to acquire General Growth Properties for $10 billion, potentially creating the largest owner of high-end malls.

The offer would accelerate General Growth Properties’ emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to Simon. “Our offer provides much-needed certainty to conclude General Growth’s protracted reorganization process,” Simon said in a statement. General Growth’s official unsecured creditors’ committee said that it is encouraging talks between the two.

General Growth is also negotiating with Canadian real estate firm Brooklyn Asset Management to get billions of dollars of capital to emerge from bankruptcy protection. General Growth’s board will make the final decision in choosing the right option. Moreover, the company’s creditors and the bankruptcy judge get a say on the final decision.

Investment banks Lazard, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz are advising Simon on the deal.