Maguire Properties chairman and CEO Robert Maguire won't go down without a fight. The 72-year-old founder of the Los Angeles real estate investment trust is under pressure from activist investor JMB Capital Partners LP to step down or sell the company because of its lackluster performance over the last year. But Maguire said Monday he has lined up financing and was ready to take the company private, according to the Los Angeles Times.
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The feisty executive said his financial backers would be Century City, Calif.-based real estate investment giant Colony Capital
and the Qatar Investment Authority, which invests internationally on
behalf of the Persian Gulf state.
Maguire, whose company owns a large part of downtown Los Angeles commercial real estate, is trying to garner support for his plan by emphasizing that local ownership is the key to the success of the REIT and the benefit of the city of angels. Although his bid would include money from the Middle East, he and his investment partners would have "more or less" equal amounts of equity in the deal and that the majority of the company's ownership would still be based in Southern California.
"I have seen too many losses to the community in mergers of major companies where the CEO is no longer in the city, and the city really suffers from that lack of commitment," Maguire was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times. — Gerald Magpily
See story from the Los Angeles Times
See TheDeal.com: Maguire weighs options
See Dealscape: JMB Capital wants Maguire to clean house
