Howard Hughes Holdings Inc Q2 2025 Earnings Call Summary

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Alexander Goldfarb - Piper Jaffray Inc - Analyst : Two questions. The first one is going to be on the MPC business, and then I'll get to the bigger picture. David, your land sales, the volumes have increased, that's despite what we're all reading about challenges in the single-family market. Obviously, you have the premium product that you guys sell, but there's also a wider array. So can you just give some more granularity on it's impressive what you guys deliver but still against the higher interest rates, housing affordability, et cetera, what -- how do we think about your properties, the price points, the diversity of buyers versus what's going on in the broader market, and your confidence that this can endure -- can continue to endure even in the face of elevated interest rates and sort of all the macro concerns?

Question: Alexander Goldfarb - Piper Jaffray Inc - Analyst : Okay. And then the second question is for Bill. Bill, when we met with you a few months ago, you spoke about the potential for creating your own insurance entity, hiring an individual and creating homegrown. It sounds like now you're thinking more on acquiring an outside entity. So one is, your thoughts on homegrown versus acquiring. And then two, as you ramp up the Howard Hughes and that investment, cash flows, it almost sounds like from the outside, like we should think about this to be two to three years before those cash flows really start to ferment. But just curious if we should be thinking longer or you think that the accretion could be sooner?

Question: Alexander Goldfarb - Piper Jaffray Inc - Analyst : Okay. And then if I could just add, when we think about the earnings potential, we should think about a significant part coming from the insurance business or that the stock portfolio is going to be more of the generation of the earnings contribution?

Question: Ray Zong - JPMorgan - Analyst : My first question is on the leverage side. Bill, as you look at the leverage as of today for Howard Hughes and the target that you're trying to go after, how should we think about a pro forma on leverage? And given that, what are the deal sizes that you think we should be expecting? Would it be 100% stake or something in something or a smaller stake but a larger company? How should we think about that?

Question: John Kim - Bank of Montreal - Analyst : Bill, in your commentary earlier, I think you mentioned that you were looking at a number of potential transactions. And I just wanted to clarify that ultimately, you'll just be acquiring one insurance company and not a series of acquisitions. And then secondly, for the companies that you're considering to acquire, do they already operate the way that you prefer in terms of being conservative and the levered? Or do you anticipate changing how they run? And if that's the case, how difficult is that to implement?

Question: John Kim - Bank of Montreal - Analyst : Okay. That's helpful. Maybe turning to David. You talked about the record price per acre that you achieved this quarter. In page 23 of your supplement, you have an estimated price per acre, and that didn't change sequentially for Summerlin or Bridgeland. Is that policy not to change that figure since an estimate? Or do you anticipate that number going up?

Question: John Kim - Bank of Montreal - Analyst : Okay. If I could just squeeze one more in on Ritz-Carlton. The condo sales have sort of stalled over the last couple of quarters?

Question: John Kim - Bank of Montreal - Analyst : And are the remaining units (inaudible) higher floor or hinder price points generally?

Question: John Kim - Bank of Montreal - Analyst : Great color.

Question: Peter Abramowitz - Jefferies LLC - Analyst : Thank you -- maybe just kind of a philosophical question, if I could, for Bill. I guess, what would you say to kind of some of the common pushback from the market and from investors on sort of the complexity of the Howard Hughes story, it's maybe been a concern over time and been a challenge that some of the feedback from the investment community is that it can be hard to underwrite or people struggle with some of the parts stories and kind of the the long duration of capital required for unlocking value, the lack of comps. And certainly, Berkshire is a good model to follow, but is a bit of a unicorn success story in the public market. So I guess, keep kind of philosophically, how do you get the market comfortable with some of those challenges that still exist in the stock? And kind of what would you say to some of that pushback?

Question: Peter Abramowitz - Jefferies LLC - Analyst : Got it. Appreciate that. And certainly, you can post a 20%-plus ROE on an annual basis. I think that's awful lot of problems. So -- and then maybe a micro question -- and just more kind of a micro question on the real estate side. David, could you just talk about just kind of leasing demand for the office asset you just acquired in the Woodlands, and how that's sort of shaping up?