CHICAGO—Shares of GGP Inc. and other shopping mall REITs were up on Tuesday and Wednesday following a Bloomberg News report that Brookfield Asset management, GGP's largest shareholder, was in preliminary discussions about a possible privatization. Citing a source said to be familiar with the matter, the two companies discussed a premium of 10% to 15% above GGP's share price at the start of this week, according to Bloomberg. Representatives from Brookfield and GGP didn't respond to GlobeSt.com's requests for comment by deadline early Wednesday afternoon.

The report followed Brookfield's announcement last week that it had exercised all of its outstanding warrants in GGP during the third quarter, paying $462 million for 68 million common shares and bringing its total ownership stake to 34%. Then known as General Growth Properties, the mall REIT chose Brookfield as its co-investor as GGP emerged from bankruptcy in 2010. Brookfield acquired additional GGP warrants three years later.

Analysts questioned whether even a 15% premium on GGP's share price Monday—which represented a five-year low—would result in a deal. BTIG analysts James Sullivan and Ami Probandt wrote that the question now became whether Brookfield is “prepared to make an offer at a fair price or whether it intends to acquire the company at a price well below the consensus NAV estimate. The Bloomberg News report indicated that the discussions were at price levels of 10% to 15% above the share price at the beginning of this week, which seems to us a very low premium to the NAV/share.”