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Opportunities to enhance shareholder value through real estate asset management

Takeovers and other trends in the business environment have emphasized the need for corporations to manage their assets more efficiently. The purpose of this thesis is to explore opportunities for corporations to enhance shareholder value through real estate asset management. To accomplish this, it is useful to examine sources of hidden value and the role of corporate real estate assets in the market for corporate control. Research for the thesis included interviews of real estate managers of several industrial corporations, mostly Fortune 500 companies, which are not primarily in the real estate business. Interviews and literature suggest that there is an increasing awareness of opportunities to minimize costs or, in some cases, to enhance the profitability of the corporation, by more actively managing real estate assets. For several reasons, however, these opportunities are often overlooked. A survey conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987 indicates that corporate real estate assets are generally "under-managed" and that these assets are typically 25 percent of total corporate assets. Since these assets are often undervalued, alternatives to ownership are explored in this thesis, along with relevant issues to be considered in evaluating alternatives. As found in several studies, the spin-off or sell-off of assets can have a positive effect on shareholder value. Thesis Supervisor: Marc Louargand Title: Lecturer Department of Urban Studies and Planning