Big investors spar over company that owns Mall of Louisiana

Just two years after activist investor William Ackman and Canadian investment powerhouse Brookfield Asset Management joined forces to pull mall giant General Growth Properties out of bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reports the two owners are squabbling. Ackman wants General Growth—which owns the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge and roughly 150 other malls across the country—to consider selling itself for what he expects would be a big premium. For its part, Brookfield prefers to stay the course and focus on improvements to the company’s malls, which also include flagships Ala Moana Center in Honolulu and Grand Canal Shoppes in Las Vegas. The bickering is escalating, even though both owners have already made enormous profits on their investments. For Brookfield, which owns a 42% stake in Chicago-based General Growth including warrants, the $3.5 billion it invested in General Growth since 2009 has more than doubled in value. Ackman invested about $60 million in 2008 and 2009 for what is now a 10% stake worth roughly $2.2 billion, including his holdings in two General Growth spin-offs. Read the full story here.