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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wallace Rivers who wrote (24787)	9/10/2006 8:29:49 AM
From: Bridge Player	Respond to of 78750

Re: Mills Co. There is also this interesting piece. Mills Corp. May Be Near Inking A Takeout Research our free archive of 2 million free full-text articles. Mergers & Acquisitions Report Mergers & Acquisitions Report; 7/3/2006 Search for more information on HighBeam Research for farallon Partners Mills Corp. Mall REIT, Heavyweight Advisors in Tow, Should Secure Deal, Sources Say While the Street appears to have little faith in $1.5 billion market cap The Mills Corp. landing a takeout, the REIT could be close to a deal. On Feb. 23, Mills publicized the start of its strategic review and its hiring of advisors-Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan-and the stock dropped 9% to $37.20 a share. And it has moved down steadily since, closing at $27.55 at press time. Arlington, Va.-based Mills manages 42 retail properties, which include regional shopping centers and entertainment complexes, in North America and Europe. A recent Mills announcement, on June 22, involves shifts in management responsibilities to allow President Mark Ettenger and other executives to focus more intensely on the review process. Ettenger came aboard in 2004 from Goldman, where he ran the real estate asset sale division. On May 23, the company announced it closed on $1.91 billion of $2.23 billion in financing from Goldman, and that it signed confidentiality agreements with "more than 30 potential buyers and investors." Bids were due on June 13, and two days after that deadline, Mills publicized the receipt of letters of intent from "a variety of parties." Vornado Realty Trust, Westfield Group, Developers Diversified Realty Corp., Taubman Centers Inc., Simon Property Group Inc., General Growth Properties Inc. and The Lightstone Group have signed confidentiality agreements with Mills and could be in the data room. Two hedge funds are also keeping Mills in the limelight. The same day Mills announced its management shift, San Francisco-based Farallon Partners LLC filed a 13DA confirming it raised its stake to 7.7% from 6.5%. Farallon managing member, Monica Landry, declined to comment via a spokeswoman. One month earlier, Stark Investments filed on 8.7%. A Stark partner, Michael Roth, did not return a call. And Mills already had one strike against it before the review announcement. On Jan. 6, it publicized it will restate its financial results back to 2000. Richard Moore, an RBC Capital Markets analyst, said, "I think people might be interested in individual assets, but based on what I've heard, I don't think anyone wants to bid on the whole package." Moore added he doubts many financial bidders are in the Mills data room. "Regional malls are a management-intensive business, so private equity firms probably won't want to bid," he said. Edward Civera, chairman of the four-director special committee, could not be reached. A call to Ettenger was deferred to a company spokesman, who, along with a Goldman spokeswoman, declined to comment. The head of real estate M&A at Goldman, Michael Graziano, could not be reached. (c) 2006 Mergers and Acquisitions Report and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. mareport.com sourcemedia.com Note that money was coming in to Mills from both Farallon Partners as well as Stark Investments even back in the 20s.