IPK & Gotham:
David,
Good question. I'm glad you asked.
It is public knowledge that the largest shareholder of Imperial Parking is Gotham Parters of New York City (Gotham's co-founder, Bill Ackman, is the Chairman of IPK). Gotham controlled First Union Real Estate (NYSE: FUR), from which IPK was spun out a year ago, so this accounts for Gotham's initial 13% stake, which has increased to 25% due partly to IPK's share buybacks and mostly due to open market purchases of the stock. This reflects Gotham's obvious great confidence in IPK, as well as a long-term orientation, given that it would be very difficult to dispose of such a large stake in such an illiquid stock.
I know Bill Ackman -- he's the one who first told me about this obscure company. I spoke with him recently and here's what he had to say:
"We have no interest in selling IPK and, in fact, would be interested in buying more if the stock were more liquid. We think the stock is very cheap and have tremendous confidence in the business and management team, so we would like to own this stock for a long, long time." |
