General Growth Buys Common Stock Warrants Held By Blackstone, Fairholme

   CHICAGO — General Growth Properties Inc. purchased warrants held by affiliates of The Blackstone Group and Fairholme Funds Inc. for about $633 million. GGP is funding the transactions with its available cash.

   The warrants had been exercisable into about 52 million common shares of the GGP at a weighted average price of around $9.37 per share. The warrants were scheduled to expire in November 2017.     Blackstone and Fairholme now no longer hold any warrants to acquire the firm’s common shares.    In addition, under an offer previously made by Brookfield Asset Management Inc., GGP’s board of directors decided not to buy the warrants recently acquired by Brookfield from affiliates of Pershing Square Capital Management LP.     Brookfield is now the sole holder of GGP’s remaining outstanding warrants, which are currently exercisable into about 83 million common shares at a weighted average price of approximately $9.53 per share.    General Growth Properties is a fully integrated, self-managed and self-administered real estate investment trust. Its portfolio is comprised of 126 regional malls in the United States and 18 malls in Brazil, comprising approximately 135 million square feet. It is headquartered in Chicago and publicly traded on the NYSE.