The owner of Ala Moana Center and Ward Centers is under heavy pressure by Wall Street to refinance debt, leading some analysts to predict the company will be forced to restructure itself.

Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc. suffered a 42 percent decline in its stock price yesterday to $4.50 from $7.75 on Monday, leaving the company with a market capitalization of $1.2 billion.

General Growth stock this year had traded as high as $43.83 on May 16, but had already dropped to just under $15 by early last week.

The nation's second-largest shopping center company, which owns or manages more than 200 regional shopping malls in 44 states, has $1.2 billion in debt coming due this year, and the credit market crisis has led analysts to question whether General Growth will be able to refinance its near-term obligations.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services on Monday lowered its corporate credit rating on General Growth by a half notch from BB to B+, signifying that it believes the company has the capacity to meet its financial commitments but that adverse economic conditions will likely impair its ability to do so.

Standard & Poor's in its report said General Growth lacks a "clearly articulated plan" to address its debt maturities, and that refinancing will be a challenge.

"In our view, the company may need to be meaningfully recapitalized in the medium term, given its current high leverage levels and roughly $7 billion of additional maturities in 2009 and 2010," Standard & Poor's said in its report.

Jeffrey Laverty, an analyst at Oscar Gruss & Son, in New York, who has a "sell" rating on the company's shares, said restructuring "is inevitable" for General Growth.

"It's more than likely they get wiped out," he said of General Growth shareholders.

A message left with Tim Goebel, investor relations director at General Growth, was not returned yesterday.

General Growth on Friday announced the departure of its longtime chief financial officer, Bernard Freibaum, and said it would suspend its common stock dividend.

"The company continues to be current on all of its debt obligations and is continuing its full financial and strategic review with its advisors," General Growth said in the Friday announcement.

Standard & Poor's said the dividend suspension would save the company $160 million in cash in the fourth quarter, but that the volatility in debt and equity capital markets exacerbates the potential difficulty the company may have in raising capital in the near term.

Much of General Growth's highly leveraged status is the result of buying rival mall and commercial real estate developer Rouse Co. in 2004 for about $12 billion, though the company for many years has piled on debt through acquisitions.

Observers have speculated that General Growth may sell property to pay down debt. However, some malls carry mortgages or other encumbrances, including $1.5 billion in encumbrances on Ala Moana Center, according to General Growth's most recent annual report filed in February.

General Growth bought Ala Moana in 1999 from The Daiei Inc. for $810 million, and in March completed construction of a major new wing and parking structure anchored by a three-story Nordstrom store.

In Hawai'i, General Growth also owns Ward Centers, which it bought in 2002 for $250 million. The company in February unveiled a vision to redevelop the 60-acre Kaka'ako property over roughly 20 years with a mix of retail and 4,300 residential units, though an initial phase of development isn't slated to start until 2011 with a main plaza replacing old warehouses and Ward Farmers Market up to Auahi Street.

General Growth also manages several Hawai'i retail centers, including Kings' Shops on the Big Island, Windward Mall on O'ahu and Maui malls Queen Ka'ahumanu Center and Whalers Village. The company also was selected to manage Kapolei Commons, the regional West O'ahu retail complex slated to open next year.

Yesterday, the company was selected to help develop a $750 million mixed-use project in New York with Archstone-Smith, a unit of Tishman Speyer Properties LP, and other partners. The 1.7 million square-foot complex is to be called the East Harlem Media, Entertainment and Cultural Center.