INDIANAPOLIS – Simon Property Group Inc. is exploring whether to buy some of the shopping malls owned by General Growth Properties Inc., the bankrupt parent of Providence Place mall.

Simon has hired Lazard Ltd. and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to advise it on possible acquisitions, a spokesman told Providence Business News. Chicago-based General Growth filed for bankruptcy in April.

Simon and General Growth own or operate four of the six largest shopping malls in Rhode Island and Bristol County, Mass.

Simon’s properties include the 1.02 million-square-foot Emerald Square mall in North Attleboro, as well as the nearby 615,713-square-foot Wrentham Village Premium Outlets in Norfolk County, Mass.

General Growth owns both 2 million-square-foot Providence Place and the 1.04 million-square-foot Silver City Galleria in Taunton. It also manages the 700,000-square-foot Swansea Mall, which is owned by New York-based Carlyle Development Group Inc.

In all, Simon owns or has stakes in 387 retail centers in North America, Europe and Asia. The company has stockpiled more than $4 billion in cash this year.

“It’s not surprising” that Simon is looking at scooping up some of General Growth’s properties, James Sullivan, an analyst with Green Street Advisors in Newport Beach, Calif., told Bloomberg.

“The mall business in the United States is very concentrated,” Sullivan said. “There are very limited opportunities to buy big portfolios and General Growth could be the biggest prize of all.”

General Growth has until the end of February to submit a reorganization plan to the bankruptcy court, and Simon will have to wait until the process gets further along before it gets the opportunity to bid on the company’s assets, Sullivan said.