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Dear A-Letter Reader,
My colleagues at Stansberry Research tell me there will likely be a MAJOR bankruptcy announcement, before midnight, tomorrow.
Porter Stansberry, who’s done as good a job predicting these things as anyone in the financial community over the past year (and was recently acknowledged in Barron’s for his efforts), explains the situation, and what it means for your money, below.
Best Regards,
Erika Nolan, Publisher
The Sovereign Society
-------------------
America's Next Major Bankruptcy
(it's not GM or CitiGroup)...
Happens this FRIDAY at Midnight
By Porter Stansberry
Founder, S&A Investment Research
Dear A-Letter Reader —
This Friday, Dec. 12th, the next stage of the financial crisis will begin.
That's when one of America's biggest businesses (they
operate in 44 states), will undoubtedly declare bankruptcy.
How can I be so sure it will happen on Friday, December 12th?
Two words...
Unpayable debt.
You see, the company I'm talking about, which is the 2nd biggest in its industry, and is headquartered in Chicago, has until Friday, December 12th at midnight to pay back a $900 MILLION loan.
In the current market, this amount of debt is lethal.
The company is currently paying over $1 billion per year in interest expenses to finance their debt—that's MORE THAN THEIR OPERATING INCOME. (That's like having a mortgage payment that's bigger than your entire paycheck.)
There is absolutely no way the company can make this $900 million payment or raise this kind of money.
And there is absolutely no way they can continue as an ongoing business. The firm basically said as much, in their most recent Quarterly Report (10-Q), dated November 10th of this year.
"Our potential inability to address our 2008 or 2009 debt maturities in a satisfactory fashion raises substantial doubts as to our ability to continue as a going concern."
In finance, this "growing concern" language is the kiss of death. So what this company is really saying is they'll be forced to declare bankruptcy if they can't find the cash—and the deadline is Friday, Dec. 12th, at midnight.
A giant Chicago mall operator that owns shopping centers in Wayne and Paramus has gotten a two-week extension to figure out how it will pay off $900 million in debt.
General Growth Properties Inc. (NYSE: GGP) – the owner of Providence Place and the Silver City Galleria in Taunton and manager of the Swansea Mall – is one of the nation’s largest publicly traded real-estate investment trusts (REITs) based on market capitalization. Additional information is available at www.ggp.com.
A Wall Street powerbroker for nearly 50 years who built an influential firm has confessed to a massive fraud scheme that will cost investors at least $50 billion, federal authorities say.
General Growth Refinances Some Debt, Still Faces Major Hurdle
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
General Growth Properties Inc. (GGP) refinanced almost $900 million in debt, though the moves are unrelated to the major debt deadline the struggling real estate investment trust faces Friday.
The company completed $896 million of mortgage loans used to retire a $58 million bond that matured Thursday and refinance $814 million in mortgage loans maturing next year.
General Growth said the loans are separate from the $900 million in debt backed by two of its malls in Las Vegas that is facing a Friday deadline. It said it was continuing discussions with its lenders on those two loans and there was no assurance it would get further extensions.
The company's shares recently jumped 28% to $1.85 as investors were optimistic that the extension would come through. The company's shares have fallen 96% this year.
If no agreement is reached on those loans, which were originally due Nov. 28, the company's banks could declare it in default on that debt, triggering cross defaults on other General Growth debts and forcing the company to seek bankruptcy protection.
Fitch Ratings said this week it expects a distressed debt exchange, in which General Growth would be forced to restructure its debt obligations to avert bankruptcy, or the company's failure to repay debt in the near term. Fitch considers a distressed debt exchange to be akin to a default.
General Growth, the second-largest U.S. mall owner by number of properties, said last month that a failure to refinance or extend $1 billion in debt due that month could trigger default on billions of dollars of debt and its ability to continue operations would be in "substantial doubt."
Two weeks ago, Citigroup Inc. (C) scuttled a proposed nine-month extension on the deadline by withholding its approval and demanding a concession on a different loan in return. Six other banks had agreed to the nine-month extension.
en.wikipedia.org...
In late November of 2008, GGP missed a deadline to repay $900 million in loans backed by two Las Vegas retail properties. GGP lenders could issue a notice of default, prompting the company to seek protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to a December 2008 Wall Street Journal article, if the company cannot re-negotiate terms of certain debt obligations, it has warned investors that it will seek bankruptcy court protection.[9] GGP reported in excess of $25 billion in debt (mostly mortgages) as of September 30, 2008.
The company – one of the nation’s largest real-estate investment trusts (REITs) – has seen profits turn to losses over the past year as retail sales have faltered and land sales have plunged. In February, General Growth posted a 2007 profit of $287.95 million, or nearly five times the previous year’s $59.27 million, on total revenue that increased 0.2 percent to $3.26 billion. (READ MORE)
Last week, it posted a third-quarter loss of $15.41 million, on total revenue that fell 5.73 percent year over year to $814.70 million. (READ MORE) The company cited a $40.34 million provision for impairment in its master-planned communities division. Occupancy at the retail centers that comprise the majority of its holdings dipped half a percentage point to 92.7 percent, but that decline was partly offset by a 3.8-percent rise in comparable-tenant revenue, General Growth added.
But it is the credit crunch that has dealt General Growth a potentially fatal blow: A string of acquisitions – including its 2004 purchase of The Rouse Co., with properties including Providence Place and Fanueil Hall, for $7.2 billion (READ MORE) – left the company with billions of dollars in short-term debt.