otra prueba mas
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/general-growth-picks-brookfield-plan-over-simons/
no se ingles pero miren
General Growth Picks Brookfield Plan Over Simon’s
By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED
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3:35 p.m. | Updated A federal bankruptcy judge granted General Growth Properties’ motion to certify an investment plan led by Brookfield Asset Management as its “stalking-horse” bid. Minutes later, the Simon Property Group said it was withdrawing its $20-a-share bid.
10:47 a.m. | Updated: General Growth Properties, the bankrupt mall operator, has chosen to stick with an investment plan led by Brookfield Asset Management, spurning a last-minute takeover bid from the Simon Property Group.
Lawyers for General Growth are asking a federal bankruptcy judge in a hearing on Friday to grant Brookfield’s plan “stalking horse” status, meaning that it would set the baseline for competing bids. It would also begin the issuance of millions of warrants to the Brookfield plan’s sponsors.
Simon said Thursday night that it would withdraw its “best and final” takeover plan, which carries a $33.5 billion enterprise value, should the warrants be issued under the Brookfield plan. Simon has argued that the warrants are costly and unnecessary, and would make it costlier to compete against the Brookfield proposal.
A lawyer for Simon, David Katz, at Friday’s hearing asked for a one-day adjournment of the proceedings to work out a potential compromise with General Growth. If the judge, Allan Gropper, granted the Brookfield plan stalking horse status, Mr. Katz reiterated, his client would walk away.
But General Growth said that it still believed the warrants represented a small obstacle to other suitors and that certifying the Brookfield plan as the stalking horse would ensure at least one certain path to emerging from bankruptcy.
“General Growth believes that obtaining the certainty is worth the cost of the warrants,” Marcia Goldstein, a lawyer for General Growth, said at the hearing.
Ms. Goldstein said that the General Growth board had met twice on Thursday after receiving Simon’s latest proposal, and still decided that pursuing the Brookfield plan was the best course. The company remained open to alternative bids, she added.
Lawyers for General Growth’s unsecured creditors committee and equity committee said they backed granting the Brookfield plan stalking horse status. The creditors’ committee withdrew an objection to the company’s motion after being assured that the Brookfield proposal had enough financial support to pay off General Growth’s $7 billion in unsecured debt in full and in cash. (It had initially backed Simon’s original takeover bid.)
Both Simon and Brookfield are competing to win over General Growth as it seeks to emerge from a year-long Chapter 11 case, one of the largest involving a real estate company. So far, General Growth has consistently favored the Brookfield plan, though in recent days it has engaged Simon in talks over a potential merger.
Under the terms of its new plan, Simon would pay $20 a share in cash and stock for General Growth’s equity, or about $6.5 billion, as well as pay off its rival’s $7 billion in unsecured debt and take over about $20 billion in outstanding mortgages. It has partnered with the Blackstone Group.
The Brookfield plan, which is also sponsored by Fairholme Capital Management and Pershing Square Capital Management, would split General Growth into a bigger company holding most of its malls and a smaller one that would hold properties the company views as undervalued. Brookfield and its partners would invest in the larger entity at $10 a share and the smaller one at $5 a share.
Simon said it would be willing to offer a recapitalization plan similar to Brookfield’s if its takeover plan ran into antitrust problems, a possibility General Growth has raised. But Simon’s backup offer would invest $11 a share in the larger General Growth spinoff.
resalto estos parrafos
lawyer for Simon, David Katz, at Friday’s hearing asked for a one-day adjournment of the proceedings to work out a potential compromise with General Growth. If the judge, Allan Gropper, granted the Brookfield plan stalking horse status, Mr. Katz reiterated, his client would walk away
vemos quien es el juez
Under the terms of its new plan, Simon would pay $20 a share in cash and stock for General Growth’s equity, or about $6.5 billion, as well as pay off its rival’s $7 billion in unsecured debt and take over about $20 billion in outstanding mortgages. It has partnered with the Blackstone Group.
vemos a un hedge funds del caso kodak
