General Growth Properties Inc. (GGP)

[justthefactsmam]

from blackstone's Q4 filing:

PRESS RELEASE OF THE BLACKSTONE GROUP L.P. DATED FEBRUARY 25, 2010
Exhibit 99.1



The Blackstone Group Reports Fourth Quarter and

Full Year 2009 Results





Commercial real estate trends in the U.S. and Europe showed continued signs of stabilization. For office properties, vacancy rates appear to have stabilized, with some markets showing signs of decreasing vacancies. In hospitality, demand appears to have bottomed as well, although pricing remains pressured. RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room), an important hospitality industry metric, continued to decline, but that decline clearly moderated in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “It has been about 17 months since the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the full onset of the global financial crisis. Equity and debt markets globally have continued to heal from their lows about a year ago although there has been some recent turbulence in January and February, most companies have reduced expenses and inventory levels, the cost of borrowing has declined and the availability of credit is increasing selectively. We believe the worst is behind us, although a recovery in Western economies could be gradual and uneven. We see many opportunities to deploy our substantial available capital across each of our asset management businesses with attractive potential risk-return for our fund investors.”