** Shares of Macerich MAC.N down 2.5% to $19.82 post-market as retail real estate investment trust $(REIT)$ seeks equity raise

** Santa Monica, California-based firm commences 18 mln share offering

** It plans to use net offering proceeds to help repay $478 mln mortgage loan with a fixed effective interest rate of approx 9.0% and which is secured by its Washington Square property in Oregon

** Goldman Sachs lead bookrunner for offering

** MAC has ~225.5 mln shares outstanding for ~$4.6 bln market cap

** Shares on Mon closed up 3% at $20.32, extending YTD gain to ~32%

(Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own))

((lance.tupper@thomsonreuters.com lance.tupper@tr.com 1-646-279-6380))