market folly

Our apologies for not posting this up earlier, but we've been out of pocket. Eric Hovde's hedge fund firm Hovde Capital Advisors sent us their latest thoughts on mall REIT operator General Growth Properties (GGWPQ) and we wanted to post it up because we've detailed the 'back and forth' between various hedge funds in this very public debate over equity valuation.

For full disclosure: Hovde is still short GGWPQ and is also short another REIT operator mentioned in the presentation. Fellow hedgies Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management and Whitney Tilson of T2 Partners have been long GGWPQ equity and have taken issue with Hovde's previous analyses. Todd Sullivan over at ValuePlays.net has also been long and disputes Hovde's research.

We've covered the entire gamut of presentations and have assembled a timeline as such for those who may be new to the situation:

Here's the timeline:

- May 27, 2009: Bill Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square Capital initially presents a bullish case for GGWPQ

- October 7, 2009: Pershing Square later issues a macro look at the mall REIT industry

- December 15h, 2009: Hedge fund Hovde Capital Advisors issues their case for a short position in GGWPQ, entitled "Fool's Gold"

- December 15, 2009: Todd Sullivan of Valueplays.net issues a rebuttal to Hovde

- December 16, 2009: Whitney Tilson of hedge fund T2 Partners also issues a Hovde rebuttal

- December 22, 2009: Bill Ackman's Pershing Square issues a follow-up presentation as well

- December 29, 2009: Hovde Capital issues a second presentation

- December 30, 2009: Whitney Tilson (T2 Partners) refutes Hovde's work

- Today, January 21, 2010: Hovde comes out with another slide-deck



Embedded below is Hovde's third presentation on GGWPQ where they take issue with some of Pershing Square's research (RSS & Email readers come to the site to view it).






You can also download the .pdf here.

So, the analytical battle wages on. We haven't heard from Pershing Square on this subject in a little while, but Ackman did briefly touch on their GGWPQ position in his recent television interview. Ackman of course is limited in the information he conveys given that he is on General Growth's board. Not to mention, Pershing Square has been busy with other portfolio endeavors as their new stake in Kraft is now their largest position.

The battle over General Growth's equity valuation continues...