Macerich's Pivot: The Disposition Story Becomes an Acquisition Story

With leasing ahead of plan and $372M in forward equity at hand, Macerich is flipping the narrative from deleveraging to external growth — and the market is beginning to believe it.

MAC · Earnings Call · 2026-08-04

Macerich's Pivot: The Disposition Story Becomes an Acquisition Story

For two years, The Macerich Company told a story of selling assets, giving back keys, and paying down debt under its Path Forward plan. Thursday's call marked a clear turning point: the same plan that was derisking through dispositions is now the platform for an acquisition push. Management was emphatic that the plan is working and that the company has moved from fixing the portfolio to compounding it.

Behind Schedule No Longer: The Leasing Machine Delivered

Management came into the quarter with a leasing "speedometer" tracking new-deal completion against its five-year plan. That gauge now reads 88% against an 85% midyear target, with only 170 of 1,000 planned new deals left to sign — two-thirds of which are already at the letter-of-intent stage. The signed-not-open (SNO) pipeline reached $124 million of the $140 million total opportunity, and the company introduced a new transparency metric, store-openings completion, which stands at 57% today against a 60% year-end target that management expects to beat. Go-forward portfolio NOI grew 3.8% in the second quarter, and Dan Swanstrom was explicit about the ramp: “if you just for simple math, assume the 3% in '26, that implies north of 8% NOI growth in '27 and '28.” — Daniel Swanstrom, Chief Financial Officer · 2026-08-04 The company is now leaning on operational proof points, not just leasing counts. Jack Hsieh framed the late-stage transformation assets — Kierland, Broadway Plaza, Scottsdale Fashion Square, Tysons — as the evidence that the playbook works: Tysons traffic is up 10% year-to-date and Scottsdale posted an 18% sales increase. This quarter's mid stage transformation cohort — Los Cerritos and Chandler — is already running mid-single-digit NOI growth above the go-forward average, with Dick's House of Sport and flagship Zara under construction at each. The old story was about filling space; the new one is about the second-and third-order effects of having filled it.

From Deleveraging to Deployment: Turning On the Acquisition Engine

The most important shift in tone came on external growth. Hsieh now describes acquisitions as "an increasingly important growth engine," with stabilized-yield opportunities in the 9% to 11% range and a pipeline that is "the most at any point since we began the Path Forward plan." The fuel is the June forward equity offering, leaving approximately $372 million available for purchases — and management is adamant it will be spent. When Craig Mailman asked whether that capital could fail to deploy before the forward's June 2026 settlement, the answer was characteristically direct:

It's not possible. I'm just going to tell you, Craig, it's just not possible. The reason why we decided to pursue the forward equity… we have so many good things happening in terms of leasing… literally like doing a forward equity is a no-brainer.
Jackson Hsieh, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-08-04

The math is attractive: deployed at 100% equity into a 9-11% stabilized yield, the $372 million would generate roughly $0.02 to $0.04 of incremental FFO per share and lower leverage another 25-30 basis points, taking net debt-to-EBITDA from 7.3x today down to the high-5s. This is a notable escalation from prior quarters, when acquisitions were described as opportunistic and "accretive to our 2028 FFO per share as part of our plan" “— criteria that remain, but the emphasis has clearly shifted from defense to offense.” — Jackson Hsieh, President and CEO · 2026-05-07 The keyword trajectory confirms the pivot: external growth, future acquisition, and "unsettled forward equity proceeds" all appear prominently for the first time this quarter.

Why It Matters: Growth Priced to Be Proven

The thesis rests on occupancy conversion and leverage. Net debt to adjusted EBITDA is down nearly half a turn quarter-over-quarter and a full 1.5 turns since the plan began; with forward equity counted, it is already below 7x. Debt to EBITDA is management's own headline measure, and the target is the 6x range by 2028. Physical occupancy sits at 91% against the 88-89% "permanent" occupancy goal — meaning the leasing done so far must still convert into rent, which is precisely the SNO pipeline that underpins the implied >8% NOI growth in 2027-28. The honest tension is that the trailing financials haven't turned yet. Liabilities to assets remain elevated at 69.3%, and net income is still negative at -$37 million this quarter. Operating cash flow has been in a decade-long downtrend. The market, however, is already voting: the stock is up 13.8% over the past 90 days off a July high, even as it remains roughly 70% below its 2015 peak. The pattern mirrors the narrative — early believers are in, and the 2027-28 ramp will decide whether the re-rating is real. The other notable absence is telling: while the broader tape — from Apple to every industrial reporting this cycle — is absorbed with IEEPA refunds and tariff recoveries, Macerich's call contains not a single tariff mention. That is the cleanest sign yet of a company fully absorbed in its own internal transformation, and it is precisely what makes this a company-specific story rather than another echo of the macro cycle.