Death of the Mall? Greatly Exaggerated, Says Big Money

Simon Property has joined the real-estate industry titans betting that mall stocks have gotten too cheap

The world’s top shopping mall companies are betting that e-commerce isn’t such an existential threat.

The latest sign is a tentative bid for U.K. real-estate investment trust Hammerson from its French peer Klépierre. Beneath the European veneer of the deal is U.S. mall giant Simon Property Group, Klépierre’s biggest shareholder.

The 615 pence...