General Growth jumps 10% after Pershing asks company to consider selling itself

General Growth Properties (GGP), a real estate investment trust or REIT, is rallying after hedge fund Pershing Square requested in a letter to the REIT that it hire advisers who will attempt to find ways of maximizing shareholder value. Pershing also asked General Growth's board to form a special committee of directors to consider selling the company. However, Pershing, which reported a 10.2% stake in General Growth and noted that Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) effectively controls a 42.2% stake in the REIT, asked that members of the committee be completely independent of Brookfield Asset Management. Pershing contended that "Brookfield has been given an effectively unlimited period of time to confidentially consider a transaction to acquire GGP" and that "if control of the company is ceded to Brookfield, shareholders will suffer." In mid-afternoon trading, General Growth jumped $1.85, or 9.99%, to $20.37.