California Apparel News

Simon Property Group, one of the biggest mall landlords in America, dropped its bid to acquire the Macerich Co., headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif., avoiding a possibly costly and lengthy proxy war.

Simon confirmed in a tersely worded statement released on March 31 that it had dropped the campaign it had formally started on March 10 to acquire Macerich, which developed and owned malls such as Santa Monica Place in Santa Monica, Calif. The Indianapolis-headquartered Simon owns California properties such as Fashion Valley in San Diego, Del Amo in Torrance, The Shops at Mission Viejo in Mission Viejo, the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto and Desert Hills Premium Outlets in Cabazon.

Also on March 31, Macerich confirmed that its board had unanimously rejected a Simon proposal, which Macerich had called unsolicited, to acquire the company. Simon proposed to acquire Macerich for $95.50 per share in cash and stock. Arthur Coppola, chairman and chief executive officer of Macerich, said in a company statement that the proposal undervalued his company.

He also stated that there was a “disconnect between private market valuations and public market views” of Macerich. He planned to change the perspective through redeveloping and expanding various

Macerich projects.