David E. Simon
Analyst · Steve Sakwa from ISI Group
Well, look, the fact is we've been very focused on the balance sheet. As you know, they've raised a lot of money in the bond market at much lower spreads than where they were beforehand. So that's a very tangible, very important, credible and important thing that we brought to the table. I'm not sure that absent our investment that they would have been able to do it. We've also reduced the reliance on their funding from BNP. And I mean, those are real tangible -- in the bounds of the organization making happen. Operationally, I mean, we're helping them think about all the promotional other income opportunities. I mean, that's going to take time, but we are now talking to certain sponsors on a global basis. We've helped them with a few tenants and a few areas on a global basis. Their head of leasing was in our -- at our shopping center convention, the ICSC. We had a number of global meetings with him and our people with the global brands, including H&M, Apple, just to name a few, Hollister. So it's happening. That stuff's going to take time, but the bond business is tangible. It's there, it happened, and that's only been in 4 months. Now strategically, you'll see changes with this company over a period of time. And the management team there has been very, very good, very cooperative, very interested in replicating what we have and listening to what we have to say. So it's working. It's a lot of work. We spent -- I spent last week there touring assets with them, going through strategy, going through numbers, going through developments. Actually, it's a scary thing helping design some of the extensions. It's scary because I was helping them, and that's -- but there's certain things I've learned over the years, too. So it's happening. It's going to take time. There's a lot that we're providing. There's more that we'll provide over a period of time. We're also respectful. We've been there 4 months. We try not to be Attila the Hun. We want to be -- we want to learn as much as we can. But the cooperation, the synergies are available. They're there. The chemistry between their managers and ours have been great. The only negative is that every morning, I have to hear about Europe every day. Harris reminded me of some of the ups and downs that go with the territory in trying to create value. We're big boys. We know nothing's easy. But I look at it, I'm getting paid to make this company better, and I've got a board and a management team that wants to get better, and we've got people here that can help make them better. And it's happening, and you can see it in the bond yields right away.