Sam Zell is a God ! (well, almost...)

I do not know Sam Zell. And I cannot tell you whether or not he is a nice man, charitable or selfish. He looks warm, fuzzy, and indeed almost grandfatherly in many of his photographic depictions (see left). What I can tell you is that his decision to sell his real estate behemoth, Equity Office Properties (Fmr Ticker: EOP) in November 2006 (closing in Feb 2007) was the epitome of counter-trend prescience, bucking the prevailing crowd by unloading at supremely elevated valuations on the offer-side of the market to buyers who were apparently more flush with cash and agency zeal than foresight. BANG! went the gavel! YOURS!!! (for $34 billion $102 million 305 thousand dollars thankyouverymuch).

By comparison, the chart below shows the fate of Manhattan Class-1 Office REIT SL Green & Co (Ticker SLG) and it isn't a pretty site. Not that SLG's earnings estimates have deviated much from what they were. Oh no. This is about ratings compression, and the (probable and correct) wisdom of the market (and thus price) running roughshod over the innovation of sparse earning information.

Most portfolio managers, investors, traders and fence-swinging hedgies aspire to "tagging it" just so, wearing it as a badge of honor for the rest of one's life, like Nils Taube in 1987. Even those of us who are more comfortable and adept at playing percentages, cannot help but admire such exemplary market-timing perfection, the flip-side of the horror we (or at least yours truly) would view the late-cycle OTT dismemberment of ABN.

So today, Sam Zell, when the best in the business (ahem, except for John Paulson) are recipients of the ego-cleansing of-a-lifetime, and all market participants are in need of something to smile about, in honor of your not-be-underestimated feat, it matters not whether you are a nice guy, or a prick, I tip my hat you...



(erratum: the inset photograph, despite the likeness to Sam Zell, is of course, NOT Sam Zell, but Burl Ives. However, his attire was more appropriate for this post than anything Sam Zell would be caught dead wearing, so I've left it, as much for its aptness as for the fact that Burl Ives was the first vinyl record I would play on my parents phonograph when old enough to figure out how to work it)