Brookfield Property to buy mall operator GGP in $15.3 billion deal

(Reuters) - Commercial real estate company Brookfield Property Partners LP said on Monday it would buy GGP Inc, one of the largest owners and operators of U.S. shopping centres, for a total consideration of about $15.3 billion (£10.8 billion).

Brookfield said it would buy GGP for $23.50 per share, compared with its previous offer of $23 per share, and increased the cash consideration by $1.85 billion to $9.25 billion. Cash represents 61 percent of the total deal.

Brookfield is GGP's largest shareholder. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Brookfield had submitted a new offer to take over GGP following the mall operator's rejection in November of its cash and stock offer of $14.8 billion or $23 a share.

GGP shareholders can elect to receive $23.50 in cash for each GGP share, or either one Brookfield unit or one share of a newly created company for each share held, the companies said.

With about 127 properties, mostly in the United States, GGP's tenants include carmaker Tesla Inc, jeweller Tiffany & Co and retailer Macy's Inc.

Brookfield Property's efforts to buy GGP come as mall owners across the United States are struggling as many brick-and-mortar retailers lose business to e-commerce firms such as Amazon.com Inc.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra and Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Matthew Lewis)