Skyscrapers in Lower Manhattan, New York City.
NEW YORK CITY— SL Green, a New York City-based real estate investment trust and the city's largest office landlord, is trying to answer one question with the bulking of its shares buy-back program, "where can I earn the highest risk-adjusted return on my capital?" Thomas Catherwood, REIT analyst at global research firm BTIG, tells GlobeSt.com.
Just recently, the REIT added $500 million in common stock for a total of $3 billion to its share repurchase program, which is intended to increase share value and coincides with the selling off of mature assets for new, high-quality assets. The REIT is focused on Class-A properties only in its acquisition strategy, and buying back the shares from those new premium assets.
With shares trading at a significant discount to net asset value, by 30% according to BTIG's estimate and even higher by SL Green's estimate, the REIT is making a straight-forward spread investment; sell assets in the 4% to 5% cap-rate range and buy a larger stake in a portfolio that includes trophy assets like 11 Madison Ave., One Vanderbilt and Worldwide Plaza at a 6.5% implied cap rate, said Catherwood.
"As long as you believe in the long-term value of SL Green's assets, which we do, and the NAV discount persists, the company's share buyback strategy is a prudent allocation of capital," he said.
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Mariah Brown
Mariah Brown is the New York Bureau Chief and Real Estate Reporter for GlobeSt.com, covering the New York Metro area, Northeast region and national real estate trends. She is responsible for producing multi-media content, including articles, podcasts and video. Before joining the GlobeSt team, she served as a New York Times fellow, reported for the Associated Press in New York and Philadelphia and several other New York City-based outlets.
