Simon Aims For Acquisitions

"We've built the company with an eye toward being a consolidator, an M&A player," Simon explained at the 11th Annual NYU REIT Symposium. He added the international arena is an important and growing part of the Indianapolis-based REIT's strategy, but not a big part as of yet. "Our ability to export our know-how has been a value-added asset to retail properties internationally," he added, citing Warsaw and Japan as successful spots for Simon Property.

However, Simon cautioned that on the mergers and acquisition side, Europe is still an "'old boys' network," but the company's growth internationally will happen in time. "It is still a developing story for us."

As far as consolidation on the heels of any M&A transaction, he added that it works in some asset classes like retail and lodging, but not all. "As we looked at retail domestically, our focus has been on the client side," Simon said. "The more quality assets you have the more you can do for your client. Whether that applies to Europe or any other place, I don't know."

When Simon entered Europe its original plan was to bring US retailers to the continent, but "that worked out for a day," he joked.

And with the potential for billions of dollars worth of activity in the horizon, Simon is aware is that there is a downside to being too big. "There is some disadvantage to being too big because sometimes you get focused on multi-tasking," he explained. "On the flipside, we built an organization that can benefit from being larger. Our clients like dealing with us and would like to see us own more and of higher quality.

"We do lose a little bit on the properties that need a lot of focus and effort, and as an organization we have to pick and chose what we do," Simon said, " but we have a long way to go before we can't handle the management."