- McDonald’s Close to Deciding Whether to Change Structure of U.S. Real Estate “McDonald’s Corp. is close to deciding what, if anything, to do with its vast U.S. real-estate holdings, board member Miles D. White said in an interview Thursday. McDonald’s long has emphasized the importance of owning its property. But with its sales slumping recently, some investors and analysts have called for it to spin off the U.S. holdings—likely as a real-estate investment trust, or REIT—saying it would benefit shareholders.” (Wall Street Journal)
- Blackstone Has First Loss Since 2011 as Stock Market Tumbles “Blackstone Group LP posted its first quarterly loss since 2011 because of a stock-market slump. Shares of the company rose after executives said most of the loss has reversed in the fourth quarter. The world’s largest alternative-asset manager reported a third-quarter loss of $416 million, or 35 cents a share, compared with a profit of $758 million, or 66 cents, a year earlier, according to a statement Thursday.” (Bloomberg)
- Albertsons Delays IPO Due to ‘Market Volatility’ “Supermarket chain Albertsons announced Thursday it would indefinitely postpone its planned initial public offering due to ‘market volatility.’ The company already delayed its plans to go public Wednesday as retailer Wal-Mart's shares were crushed by disappointing sales and earnings guidance. Albertsons, which is owned by private-equity firm Cerebus Capital Management and other sponsors, originally planned to raise as much as $1.95 billion in an IPO priced between $23 and $26 per share. (CNBC)
- Citigroup Predicts $31 Billion in Legacy Asset Sales by Year’s End “Citigroup expects to sell by the end of this year another $31 billion of loans that it decided to get rid of after the financial crisis, Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach said. That will pare the assets of Citi Holdings, the unit where the fourth-largest U.S. bank grouped businesses that lost value during the crisis and other "non-core" segments, to $70 billion to $75 billion, Gerspach said.” (The Street)
- Walmart CEO’s Plan to Fight Amazon: “Win with Stores” “At a meeting with Wall Street analysts on Wednesday, Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon gave a full-throttled defense of the retailer’s fleet of thousands of stores in fending off Amazon, as well as other rivals. ‘First, win with stores, ‘ McMillon told the analysts. ‘We know customers love shopping in stores, and they’ll want great stores.’” (Fortune)
- Here’s Why Restaurants Are Eating Walmart’s, Whole Foods’ Lunch “When companies from Wal-Mart Stores to Whole Foods are struggling to sell groceries, the chances are more likely changing preferences than management screwups. And, that’s what the macroeconomic data show. Restaurant spending earlier this year overtook grocery spending for the first time on record.” (MarketWatch)
- NYC Leads Global Real Estate Investment to Post-Crisis Record “Global investment in real estate reached its highest level since 2007 in the first half of the year thanks to a flurry of deals in the Americas and New York City, according to a new report by CBRE. New York City was by far the biggest market, attracting $40.1 billion in investment over the first two quarters. That’s 10 percent of the global total of $407 billion – a staggering share for a city, accounting for 1.8 percent of the world’s economic output.” (The Real Deal)
- Explosion of Cloud Based Services Driving Demand for More Data Centers Globally “According to JLL's annual Data Center Outlook report, as more global companies move data and information to the cloud, the cloud itself is actually moving closer to them. Several North American data center markets - like Northern Virginia, Reno and Dallas - have emerged as hotspots as operators and cloud providers follow affordable utility rates, tax incentives and a demand for expanded service offerings.” (World Property Journal)
- $1B Later, Freddie Mac Wants to Deepen its Manufactured Housing Offering “Freddie Mac has purchased $1 billion in manufactured housing loans, the GSE announced on Thursday. This milestone was reached year-and-a-half after launching the platform, and one year after Walker & Dunlop originated the first loan through it. Now the GSE is looking to deepen the program, Kelly Brady, Freddie Mac Multifamily Vice President tells GlobeSt.com.” (GlobeSt.)
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