Maguire takeover buzz

We've been to this dance before, but it's still worth noting that shares of L.A.-based Maguire Properties Inc. are way up this morning on speculation that the real estate company is looking for a deal that would take it private - with Rob Maguire still running the show. At a little before noon, the stock was up almost 7 percent, at $40.07 - just shy its 52-week high of $40.36 earlier in the morning. Merrill Lynch analyst Ian Weissman raised his price target on the stock to $43 from $39 on Monday, based on the takeover talk. He figures that a buyout would likely occur between $43 and $45 a share.

Maguire fell short of analysts' expectations in the second quarter as a result of smaller-than-expected net operating income and fewer-than-anticipated acquisitions. (It's held back on acquiring $700 million in properties this year because prices are too high.) The strategy is now to sell rather than buy properties.

Backgrounder: Going private would not be that surprising. Maguire has had a tough time on Wall Street - or shall we say Wall Street has had a tough time with him. It's getting to be an old story. In my Los Angeles magazine piece on Richard Ziman (September issue; sorry, it's not online), the former Arden Realty CEO talks about the hassle of being publicly held. He hated trying to please Wall Street with good numbers every quarter – nor was he thrilled about the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations that establish tighter standards for running public companies. “I’ve made a vow,” he said, “that for the rest of my professional life I am never going to be a CEO and that whatever I do, I am going to be the enabler instead of the enabled.”



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Mark Lacter
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.
 
Mark Lacter, business writer and editor was 59
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