Vornado asset sales could top $1 billion: CEO

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Vornado Realty Trust could sell more than $1 billion in assets this year, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

"We have the best part of a billion dollars in aspirations to sell by the end of the year, maybe even far more than that," Vornado CEO Michael Fascitelli told investors attending the National Real Estate Investment Trusts' Investor Forum called REITWeek 2012.

Vornado owns office and retail real estate chiefly in New York City and Washington, D.C. It also holds stakes in other companies, such as Toys R Us and J C Penney Co Inc . It recently said it would try to simplify its business as its stock price has trailed peers.

Vornado does not plan to sell its stake in J C Penney. It would like to spin off Toys R Us, which it owns with Bain Capital and KKR & Co LP , in an initial public offering. However, that may not happen soon, given the lack of interest in the IPO market, Chief Financial Officer Joseph Macnow said.

The company is about to market stakes it holds in three malls: Green Acres Mall, On Long Island, of which it owns 100 percent; half ownership stake in Monmouth Mall, in Eatontown, New Jersey; and a 32 percent stake in Kings Plaza Regional Shopping Center in Brooklyn.

It also expects to sell about $300 million in other retail property such as strip centers, of which it owns 123.

(Reporting By Ilaina Jonas; editing by M.D. Golan)

WhatsAppFacebookTwitterLinkedinBeloudBluesky