And Now a Word from Chicago…

If you only read this article from The Sun or this one from The Daily Record, you might think that GGP was in some really deep doo-doo.

No doubt there are challenging days ahead for the company but it may not be as dire as those stories seem to indicate. A friend of mine sent me the GGP press release that resulted in these gloom and doom stories.

The exact text of that release is as follows:

CHICAGO – September 22, 2008 – General Growth Properties, Inc. (NYSE: GGP) today announced that the Company’s Board of Directors and management team is pursuing a comprehensive evaluation of its alternatives, both financial and strategic, in an effort to align the market value of the Company’s common stock more closely with the intrinsic value of the Company’s stable, high quality portfolio of real estate assets in good locations with significant barriers to entry. Occupancy reached a record high of 93.2% in the second quarter of 2008 and comparable net operating income continued to increase, even in a challenging consumer sales environment.

The Company currently anticipates that it will be in a position to offer a long-term fixed-rate portfolio mortgage financing to lenders in mid to late November, and in the interim will actively pursue several sources of financing for the Company’s near term maturing obligations. The Company and its advisors are also developing a comprehensive, strategic plan to generate capital from a variety of potential sources including, but not limited to, both core and non-core asset sales, the sale of joint venture or preferred equity in selected pools of its assets, a corporate level capital infusion, and/or strategic business combinations.

General Growth is one of the largest U.S.-based publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) based upon market capitalization. The Company currently has ownership interest in, or management responsibility for, a portfolio of more than 200 regional shopping malls in 44 states, as well as ownership in master planned community developments and commercial office buildings. The Company's portfolio totals approximately 200 million square feet and includes over 24,000 retail stores nationwide. The Company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol GGP.

So there you have it.