Land & Buildings mounts board challenge at Ventas, nominates 3 candidates source

Ventas

11/01/2024 12:00

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
       NEW YORK, Jan 11(Reuters) - Activist investor Land &
Buildings Investment Management nominated three director
candidates at Ventas  VTR.N , arguing change is needed to
improve performance at the owner of senior housing communities,
a person familiar with the matter said.
    Jonathan Litt, Land & Buildings' founder and chief
investment officer warned Ventas last year that he might mount a
board challenge but also said he was ready to work
constructively with the company to boost returns.
    The investment firm, which owns roughly $50 million of the
real estate investment trust's shares, real estate finance
executives for election to the company's 11-member board, the
source said.
    Nori Gerardo Lietz, teaches at Harvard Business School and
founded real estate advisory firm Arete Capital, Ted Bigman
headed the Global Listed Real Assets business at Morgan Stanley
and John Guinee, who worked at Stifel, Nicolaus & Company,
serves on the board of Plymouth Industrial REIT Inc  PLYM.N .
    A Ventas spokesman was not immediately available for
comment. 
    This marks the second time in two years that Land &
Buildings has proposed director candidates at Ventas. 
    In 2022, investors elected all of the company's directors
after proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services
recommended shareholders vote for management's nominees instead
of Jonathan Litt, the Land & Buildings nominee.
    However ISS wrote in April, 2022 that if management did not
improve performance, shareholders could press for more
substantive changes if the dissident were to present a broader
slate.
    Ventas, which has a market value of $19 billion, saw its
stock slip 0.88% in the last 52 weeks while Welltower Inc, a
rival, saw its stock price climb 26% in the last year.
    Ventas owns or has investments in approximately 1,400
properties in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

 (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by David Gregorio)
 ((svea.herbst@thomsonreuters.com; +617 233 2138; Reuters
Messaging: svea.herbst.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))