General Growth Properties, the second-biggest US shopping mall owner, filed for bankruptcy yesterday due to the collapse in commercial property prices.

The Chicago-based company owns more than 200 malls in the US, making it one of the largest real estate bankruptcies ever. With $27bn in net debt, General Growth late last month failed to renegotiate new terms with bondholders for $2.25bn of debt.

General Growth said yesterday that approximately 158 regional shopping centres that it owned also filed for bankruptcy.

Financial Times, Daily Telegraph