In his second quarter earnings call, Lennar Corp. CEO Stuart Miller said 2015 is a significant statement year for the ancillary businesses, "and in each one of them we are seeing significant moves towards maturity.”
With Lennar’s 8-K SEC filing this morning, its Five Point Communities has passed the maturity phase: It's now ready for independence, as the firm submitted initial plans for an IPO.
Today, through an 8-K SEC filing Miami-based Lennar announced that the “entities that own Newhall Ranch, Great Park Neighborhoods which is on the former site of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, and The San Francisco Shipyard and Candlestick Point will be combined, together with the existing Five Point Communities management company.”
Under the agreement, Lennar will contribute its ownership interests in each of the three real estate communities (and the management company) and will receive units of membership interest in subsidiaries of Five Point Holdings, according to the filing.
J. P. Morgan estimates that Lennar would own 33% of the company after an IPO.
Along Lennar’s filing, Five Point Holdings announced today that it has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a potential IPO. Emile Haddad will be chairman and CEO of the company.
Earlier in the year, Lennar management indicated it would consider the next steps with a number of ancillary businesses as they mature. In addition to Five Point’s California master-planned communities, Lennar has also invested heavily in multifamily, with 20,000 units in the pipeline, and Rialto, a diversified real estate investment, management, development and finance company
“Although these entities are of differing sizes and stages of development, we would expect management to consider next step strategies for them over time,” UBS’s Sharon Maklari said in a research note today.
J.P. Morgan's Michael Rehaut agrees. "We continue to expect additional announcements regarding the future of the two remaining businesses over the next 2-3 quarters,” he wrote.
In his earnings call, Miller said he sees growth in these business, but it will be uneven.
“As home building continues to grow, we think that the ancillaries are going to grow also, and we can’t really lay out exactly what those proportions will be,” he said.
But Lennar’s ancillary business are, in fact, one reason Maklari is bullish about the company going forward.
“We continue to believe Lennar is among the best positioned builders, given management's acumen at working through complex transactions; efforts to effectively cut costs and simplify the business, and pursuit of investments outside the core home building operations.”