General Growth Properties' Fall From Grace

I have read, with some dismay, the articles concerning Simon Properties' bid to take over the remains of General Growth Properties.

My own connection with the firm, though brief and passing, goes back to 2000.

At the time, a prominent hedge fund manager and former Salomon Brothers partner offered to assemble a hedge fund around my equity strategy. His anchor investor, as it were, was GGP's then-chairman, Matthew Bucksbaum. At the time, Bucksbaum was a billionaire, thanks to his personal investments in GGP. The firm had been built by his family over decades, then gone public as a REIT, providing substantial, liquid wealth for them.

As part of the process of securing Bucksbaum's investment, the partner assembling the hedge fund asked me to do some analysis of GGP's competitors, and GGP, using the consulting version of my research. It was to be a threefold activity: a chance for Matt Bucksbaum to evaluate me and my work; a good faith provision of free analysis, and; a formal reply to a question Bucksbaum had regarding GGP's valuation relative to his company's peers. Vornado, Simons and Rouse were among the REITs which I analyzed.

It didn't take me long to do the analysis, nor identify a probable cause of GGP's relatively lower valuation, particularly when compared to Vornado. Put simply, GGP had a bad habit of selling properties when they had accrued substantial gains, providing shareholders at those times with extraordinary gains. Thereafter, investors knew such gains would be years in coming.

Consequently, GGP's earnings were more volatile than Vornado's, and its valuation was lower, due to this lack of consistency. I provided some guidance as to how GGP could improve its earnings consistency, and offered to provide additional presentations to the firm's management team.

Bucksbaum understood my analysis, conclusions, and recommendations, though he evidently declined to pursue them further.

However, he agreed to back our hedge fund.

When I read of GGP's sudden spiral toward bankruptcy in the last year or so, it took me back to my meetings with Bucksbaum in the spring of 2000. I can't, of course, estimate how much of GGP's troubles were due to the operating policies which I identified as probably depressing the firm's value to investors. Articles in the Wall Street Journal suggested that, like investment and commercial banks, and many hedge funds, GGP had unwisely used too much short term borrowed funding. Adding to that problem, the firm's COO, Matthew's son, John, had apparently borrowed heavily against family-owned GGP shares. When margin calls came due during the 2008 financial debacle, the firm's and family's fortunes began to rapidly unravel.

Last I read, Matthew Bucksbaum was reduced to being worth only tens of millions. Still more money than most Americans will see at his age. But something like 1% of his peak net worth.

A good lesson in how fleeting business success can sometimes be.