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Bloomberg
Macerich Co.’s chief executive officer and chairman, Arthur Coppola, will retire from the US mall owner at the end of the year, the company said.
Coppola joined Macerich as a founding partner in 1976 and has led the company since 1993, according to a statement. Macerich has started looking for a replacement CEO and named Steven Hash, an independent member of the board since 2015, as chairman as of the upcoming annual meeting.
“For over four decades, Macerich has achieved a creative dominance in the market and been a leader in sustainability,†Coppola said. “It’s been a privilege to serve as CEO of this amazing company and its predecessor for 30 years,†he added.
Macerich shares have fallen 12.4 percent this year, giving the company a market value of $8.1 billion.
Starboard Value, the activist fund run by Jeff Smith, has built a position in Macerich and nominated a majority slate of directors to its board, a person familiar with the matter said. Another activist fund, Dan Loeb’s Third Point, disclosed a stake in Macerich in November.
Mall owners including Macerich are trying to stay relevant as brick-and-mortar retailers shut stores at a record pace, buffeted by the rise of Amazon.com Inc. and other online competitors. US mall operator GGP Inc. agreed to be acquired by a unit of Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management in a deal valued at about $15 billion. Brookfield has said it plans to unlock the value of the land GGP’s malls are built on and redevelop them with its expertise in residences, offices and hotels.
Macerich owns 48 regional shopping centrEs across the US, according to its website. Its holdings encompass some of the country’s top malls, including Santa Monica Place, with high-end shops such as Tiffany’s and Louis Vuitton, and Tysons Corner Center, a 1.97 million square-foot retail mecca in Virginia.