Land & Buildings nominates 3 candidates in Ventas board challenge (updated)

Ventas

11/01/2024 15:55

(Adds comment from Ventas in paragraphs 5-6, stock update in
10, adds details on performance in paragraph 11)
    By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
       NEW YORK, Jan 11(Reuters) - Activist investor Land &
Buildings Investment Management has nominated three director
candidates at Ventas  VTR.N , the owner of senior housing
communities confirmed, arguing that change is needed to improve
performance.
    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, proposed three real
estate finance executives for election to the company's
11-member board, a source told Reuters earlier.
    Nori Gerardo Lietz, who teaches at Harvard Business School,
founded real estate advisory firm Arete Capital and serves on
the board of Veris Residential; Ted Bigman, who headed the
Global Listed Real Assets business at Morgan Stanley; and John
Guinee, who worked at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. and serves on the
board of Plymouth Industrial REIT Inc  PLYM.N , are the
nominees, the source said.
    Ventas in a statement said it will evaluate Land &
Buildings' director candidates and "recognizes the importance of
ongoing refreshment and has an effective and comprehensive
director succession and search process in place." 
        The company also said, "Shareholders today benefit from
a strong, diverse and experienced Board composed of 11 highly
qualified directors, 10 of whom are independent."
  
    This marks the second time in two years that Land &
Buildings has proposed director candidates at Ventas. 
    Investors in 2022 elected all of the company's directors
after proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services
recommended shareholders vote for management's nominees instead
of 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'
stock was flat in Thursday trading.
    Ventas owns or has investments in approximately 1,400
properties in the United States, Canada and the U.K. It has
delivered an 18% compound annual return since 2000 and has
outperformed the Morgan Stanley REIT index (RMS) for the last
one- and two-year periods.
        
  

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