Land & Buildings, the activist hedge fund up ~25% in 2015, sends a letter to NorthStar Asset Management about its strategic alternatives.
Here’s the letter:
This morning’s announcement that NorthStar Asset Management (NYSE: NSAM) has hired Goldman Sachs to evaluate strategic alternatives is a step in the right direction. As we have communicated to you and you have communicated to the rest of the Board, we believe the decline in the share price is likely attributable, among other things, to investors’ distaste for externally advised REITs, the substantial compensation to be paid to senior management as well as weakness at NorthStar Realty Finance (NYSE: NRF).
To maximize value for all NSAM shareholders, we believe the Board of Directors of NSAM needs to be significantly reconstituted. With a refreshed Board that has no conflicts of interest, we believe the Company will then have the ability to undertake a value creation strategy which will have credibility with NSAM shareholders.
With the strategic alternatives review process under way, it is particularly important and timely to add independent shareholder representatives in the boardroom to ensure a fair process that properly takes into account shareholder best interests.
Further, the deadline to nominate directors is just a few weeks away. Given the time it will take to evaluate strategic alternatives we ask that you extend the deadline to nominate directors for three months in order to give the Company time to undertake the process and for shareholders to assess its progress.
