Exclusive: General Growth board looking to hire banker - sources

NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Growth Properties Inc's board is interviewing potential financial advisers, a week after activist investor Bill Ackman urged the No. 2 U.S. mall owner to consider putting itself up for sale, two sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Investment bankers are making presentations to the board this week, the sources said.

Ackman, who controls a 10.5 percent stake in General Growth, has urged General Growth's independent directors to form a special committee to consider a sale.

But it could not be learned whether the board was planning to do so or was hiring a bank as a defensive move.

General Growth spokesman David Keating declined to comment.

(Reporting by Ilaina Jonas; Editing by Gary Hill)