Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE: SPG) has been named America's Most Admired Company in the real estate industry according to FORTUNE magazine. As part of FORTUNE's 24th annual list of America's Most Admired Companies in its March 6th issue, SPG emerged as the industry leader for the second time in the past four years.
Arkadia shopping center, Warsaw, Poland.
"This recognition means a great deal," said David Simon, chief executive officer of SPG (see photo below), "and is a direct result of the tremendous focus and dedication that our employees bring to their job. We're extremely proud of the fact that we have created a company that is both the nation's largest retail real estate company and its most admired."
Simon Property Group, Inc., headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a real estate investment trust engaged in the ownership, development and management of retail real estate, primarily regional malls, Premium Outlet(R) centers
and community/lifestyle centers. The Company's current total market capitalization is approximately $42 billion. Through its subsidiary partnership, it currently owns or has an interest in 286 properties in the United States containing an aggregate of 200 million square feet of gross leasable area in 39 states plus Puerto Rico. Simon also owns interests in 51 European shopping centers in France, Italy, and Poland; 5 Premium Outlet(R) centers in Japan; and one Premium Outlet(R) center in Mexico. Additional Simon Property Group information is available at http://www.simon.com.
To compile the Most Admired list, FORTUNE enlisted the help of Hay Group, which sorted the FORTUNE 1,000 and the top foreign companies operating in the U.S. into 65 industry lists, each containing the ten largest companies. Hay then surveyed executives, directors, and analysts, asking them to rate companies in their own industry according to eight criteria: Innovation; People Management; Financial Soundness; Quality of Management; Use of Corporate Assets; Social Responsibility; Long-term Investment; and Quality of Products/Services. To create the top 20 list, Hay Group asked the 10,000 respondents to the industry survey to select the ten companies they admired most, regardless of category. These were chosen from a list of the companies that ranked among the top 25% in last year's survey, plus those that finished in the top 20% of their industry. A total of 611 companies in 70 industries were surveyed.
Source: Simon Property Group
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