Hedge fund executive Bill Ackman is considering a plan to take the Houston-based real estate firm Howard Hughes Corp. (NYSE:HHH) private.
According to combined news reports, Ackman made his announcement in a regulatory filing. Ackman owns more than 37% of HHH’s stock through Pershing Square Capital Management, the investment manager for his hedge fund Pershing Square Holdings, and he is weighing “various potential alternatives” that could involve acquiring all HHH’s shares either alone or in collaboration with co-investors. Ackman hired Jefferies to advise him for a potential transaction.
The company’s board of directors responded to Ackman’s plans by creating a special committee of independent directors to review any proposal regarding the company’s future; Ackman left the board earlier this year. Howard Hughes Corp. went public in 2010 as a spin-off of General Growth Properties, a real estate investment trust focused on shopping centers. Last month, Howard Hughes Corp. spun off Seaport Entertainment into a separate public company.
“There can be no assurance that the foregoing will result in any particular outcome, and HHH does not intend to comment further on these matters until HHH determines that additional disclosure is appropriate or required by law,” the company said in a statement.
Ackman’s announcement comes one week after he canceled the initial public offering for Pershing Square USA following a lower-than-expected level of investor demand.
Howard Hughes Corp. owns land and develops office buildings, apartment buildings and master-planned communities across Arizona, Hawaii, Maryland, Nevada and Texas.
Photo: Senate Democrats / Wikimedia Commons
