Prime Group's No. 1 Stockholder Losing Patience

CHICAGO-Prime Group Realty Trust’s largest single stockholder says management is not moving fast enough to close the gap between the REIT’s stock price and the value of its city and suburban office and retail assets. While sharing Boston-based K Capital Partners, LLC’s disappointment over the stock price, co-president Louis G. Conforti tells GlobeSt.com the management team continues to vigorously pursue a “significant capital event.”

K Capital Partners managing director Abner Kurtin, whose company’s 18% stake in the REIT is worth about $14 million, is dismayed Prime Group Realty Trust stock continues to trade at a 70% discount from book value despite current management’s efforts to clean up the balance sheet and cut debt. “Prime Group suffers this discount because its high leverage, lack of dividend and small market capitalization constrain investor interest in the stock,” Kurtin says in a letter to acting chairman Stephen J. Nardi.

Conforti notes the game plan set when he, Nardi and co-president Jeffrey Patterson assumed control of the company following the April departures of former chairman Michael W. Reschke and president Richard S. Curto includes three steps: clean up the corporate balance sheet, focus on leasing and operations, then explore sales of assets or the entire company.