Mall of Louisiana owner won’t take up push to hit sales block

Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc., which owns 150 shopping malls across the United States—including the Mall of Louisiana—has rebuffed activist shareholder Bill Ackman’s efforts to push it to consider a sale, The Wall Street Journal reports. General Growth’s board argues that the gains it has made since leaving bankruptcy protection in 2010 support additional improvement as a stand-alone company. General Growth has roughly $20 billion in debt and an equity value of $19.3 billion. Ackman, one of the architects of the recapitalization plan that lifted General Growth out of bankruptcy, has argued the company’s shareholders would be best served by a sale. Ackman has specifically mentioned Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group Inc., the nation’s largest mall owner, as a possible buyer. But Bloomberg reports that Simon CFO Stephen Sterrett has responded by saying, “We have no interest in General Growth.” Though a sale of the entire company may not be in the cards, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports General Growth is working on a deal to sell 32 office buildings in Las Vegas for an estimated $127 million. Read that story here. Aside from the Mall of Louisiana, General Growth’s holdings in Louisiana include Oakwood Center in Gretna and Pecanland Mall in Monroe.