Anthony W. Deering, chief executive of the Rouse Co., stands to collect about $61 million in cash from the company's anticipated sale to a Chicago mall owner, according to the most recent records filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
He also will receive an $8 million severance payment if he loses his job as expected when the sale is closed. He is also scheduled to receive about $15 million in retirement benefits, the filing shows.
Some of Deering's top lieutenants also stand to gain millions of dollars if the deal closes as expected. Thomas J. DeRosa, the company's chief financial officer, would get $24.2 million in cash.
The payments were outlined in a proxy statement filed with the SEC on Tuesday, nearly three weeks after Rouse announced that it had agreed to sell itself to General Growth Properties Inc. for $7.2 billion in cash.
The statement also reveals that two other companies, identified only as Company A and Company B, also wanted to buy Rouse. But neither of those companies could finalize a deal as quickly as General Growth.
Each company complained about the rushed nature of negotiations. But Rouse sought a quick sale "to avoid disruption of Rouse's business, preserve competition among the participants and preclude them from teaming up, and minimize the risk of premature publicity," the proxy statement said.
A spokeswoman at Simon Property Group Inc. yesterday confirmed that the company had been in "very preliminary discussion [with Rouse] in June but never came to terms."
Rouse did not return calls seeking comment about the other suitors or the cash payments.
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