Activist hedge fund urges Forest City to explore options

(Reuters) - Activist hedge fund Land and Buildings Investment Management LLC has urged real estate company Forest City Realty Trust Inc to explore "strategic options".

Land and Buildings said it believed Forest City had at least 40 percent upside to its net asset value, given its "enviable" collection of high quality real estate, which includes malls, retail centers and residential rental properties.

The hedge fund blamed Forest City's "tangled web of nepotism", "self dealing" and failure of corporate governance for its depressed margins, bloated general and administrative expenses and "value-destroying capital allocation".

Land and Buildings said it was calling on Forest City to convene a special meeting of its shareholders to put the company's 13-person board to a vote.

Shares of Forest City, which had a market value of $5.76 billion as of Friday's close, were up 2 percent at $22.09 in late morning trading on Monday.

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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