Bankrupt mall owner Washington Prime Group Inc. is drawing interest from real estate investment trust RPT Realty Inc. after soliciting purchase bids as part of its “dual path” bankruptcy process, Bloomberg News reported. RPT Realty, which owns about 50 shopping centers across the U.S., is assessing Washington Prime’s properties as part of the mall owner’s chapter 11 restructuring, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing private negotiations. Washington Prime said at the time of its bankruptcy filing June 14 that it was already “in discussions with several potentially interested parties,” regarding a sale. The company said that it was exploring bids even after filing a restructuring plan to the bankruptcy court that would see it hand ownership shares to its unpaid creditors in a debt-for-equity swap. Its shares were trading around $2.42 Tuesday morning, down from around $5.00 ahead of the filing. Its plan provides a potential recovery of about 83 cents for common share holders.
