Business & Finance
Business and Finance
Business and Finance
Mon, December 22, 2008 Forestar Re-Affirms Strategy to Enhance Long-Term Shareholder Value
AUSTIN, Texas--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Forestar Group Inc. (NYSE: FOR) today announced that it had received a copy of a Schedule 13D that was filed Friday afternoon with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Holland M. Ware and his attorney, David C. Cook, in which they disclose ownership of approximately 2.5 million shares or 6.7% of the Company's common stock. The filing indicates that they believe the Company's stock is undervalued and either wish to acquire the Company or participate in some other major transaction to increase shareholder value.
Jim DeCosmo, president and chief executive officer of Forestar Group, stated, "We communicated to Mr. Ware that, like him, we also believe our stock price is significantly below the value of the Company's assets and strategy. We are committed to enhancing long-term shareholder value through entitlement and development of real estate, maximizing the value of our natural resources, and growing our business. Given current market conditions, altering our strategy would not be beneficial for enhancing long-term value for shareholders. Forestar's Board of Directors and management are very confident that our strategy of value creation and growth will result in building substantial long-term value for all of the Company's shareholders."
About Forestar Group
Forestar Group Inc. operates in three business segments: real estate, mineral resources and fiber resources. The real estate segment owns directly or through ventures about 368,000 acres of real estate located in ten states and thirteen markets in the U.S. The real estate segment has 26 real estate projects representing over 33,000 acres currently in the entitlement process, and 77 entitled, developed and under development projects in eight states and twelve markets encompassing over 17,000 acres, comprised of almost 30,000 residential lots and over 2,200 commercial acres. The mineral resources segment manages about 622,000 net acres of oil and gas mineral interests. The fiber resources segment sells wood fiber from its land primarily located in Georgia, and leases land for recreational uses. The company also has a 45% nonparticipating royalty interest in groundwater produced or withdrawn for commercial purposes from approximately 1.38 million acres in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Alabama. Forestar's address on the World Wide Web is [ www.forestargroup.com ].
Forward-looking Statements
This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements reflect management's current views with respect to future events and are subject to risk and uncertainties. We note that a variety of factors and uncertainties could cause our actual results to differ significantly from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors and uncertainties that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to: general economic, market, or business conditions; the availability of loans and fluctuations in the credit markets; the opportunities (or lack thereof) that may be presented to us and that we may pursue; fluctuations in costs and expenses including development costs; demand for new housing, including impacts from mortgage credit availability; lengthy and uncertain entitlement processes; cyclicality of our businesses; accuracy of accounting assumptions; competitive actions by other companies; changes in laws or regulations; changes in federal energy policies; demand for oil and gas; and other factors, many of which are beyond our control. Except as required by law, we expressly disclaim any obligation to publicly revise any forward-looking statements contained in this news release to reflect the occurrence of events after the date of this release.
