Litt Pushes Taubman to Cut Costs or Sell

The Mall at Short Hills is one of 22 US properties owned and operated by Taubman Centers.

STAMFORD, CT—Activist investor Jonathan Litt is pushing for change at mall REIT Taubman Centers, urging it to consider strategic alternatives including a management-led privatization or a sale of the company to a third party. In a letter to the Bloomfield Hills, MI-based REIT’s independent directors, made public on Wednesday, the founder and CIO of Land and Buildings Investment Management cites Taubman’s “drastic discount to NAV, inferior margins, poor capital allocation and horrible corporate governance practices” despite owning “the most productive class A malls available to the investing public.”

In his letter, Litt notes that he has held “countless discussions” with Taubman management over the years, going back as far as his days covering the REIT as an analyst. “After decades of voicing our concerns to management we are done listening to excuses from the Taubman family for the company’s undervaluation and inferior operating performance,” he writes.