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Activist Jonathan Litt Considers Pushing for Mack-Cali Sale

Activist Jonathan Litt Considers Pushing for Mack-Cali Sale

(Bloomberg) -- Activist investor Jonathan Litt has significantly increased his position in Mack-Cali Realty Corp. and is likely to push for changes at the real estate investment trust, including a possible sale of all or parts of the company, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Litt’s Land & Buildings Investment Management disclosed in a regulatory filing Monday that it had acquired 1.26 million additional shares in the New Jersey company, quadrupling its stake to about 1.85 percent. It isn’t clear whether Litt and Mack-Cali’s management have met to discuss the changes he might seek at the company, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.

A representative for Litt declined to comment. A representative for Mack-Cali, based in Jersey City, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Mack-Cali owns, manages and develops office and apartment properties in the Northeastern U.S. In a presentation on its second-quarter results, the company estimated the net asset value of its real estate at $35.93 a share.

The shares rose on the news, climbing as much as 6.5 percent. They were trading at $19.84 at 12:27 p.m. in New York.

Litt’s increased position also comes as Chairman Bill Mack, 78, is nearing the mandatory retirement age of 80 set by the company’s bylaws.

Mack-Cali is well known to Litt, who sat on the board for more than two years. In November 2014, eight months after Litt joined the board, Mack-Cali said its chief executive officer at the time, Mitchell Hersh, was stepping down and wouldn’t seek re-election as a director.

Litt himself resigned from the board in August 2016 after the shares rose more than 32 percent. The company said at the time that his resignation wasn’t the result of any disagreement with the company or its strategy.

To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Deveau in New York at sdeveau2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Christine Maurus, Michael Hytha

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