Report Reveals LEI's Underperformance

LOS ANGELES—A new report from Unite Here shows that Lowe Enterprises Investors, a real estate manager with a roster of institutional clients, is dramatically underperforming compared to similar companies. According to the report, the manager has lost 8% of its asset value over the last two years, while a broader look over the last cycle reveals lost properties, money-losing funds and general underperformance when compared to its peers.

Lowe Enterprises Investors is, of course, a highly regarded firm known for managing separate accounts on behalf of its institutional clients, pension funds in Ohio and Pennsylvania and insurance companies Allstate and Guardian. However, according to Unite Here, the company’s Ohio account underperformed in the last three and five year periods, while its Pennsylvania accounts underperformed in the last one, three and five year periods. By comparison, according to Charlie Carnow, a research analyst for Unite Here, “the second-worst comparable Pennsylvania SERS, the UBS Trumbull Property Fund, on a five year basis posted a 5-year return of 11.3%, 6.2 percentage points higher than Lowe’s 5.1% return in the same period.”