Ailing Golf Firm Sees Stock Jump

By ANTHONY PALAZZO

Staff Reporter

National Golf Properties Inc., the troubled real estate investment trust based in Santa Monica, has shown signs of life.

National Golf’s stock rose sharply last week on heavy volume after the golf-course landlord took several steps toward resolving lease issues with its ailing primary tenant, American Golf Corp.

National Golf’s stock rose to $11.50 at the Jan. 9 close, up 29 percent in the year. A large part of the move came on Jan. 4, when 1.2 million shares traded hands.

“There’s been, from what I can tell, one large buyer,” said Steve Sakwa, an analyst with Merrill Lynch & Co. who still has a sell rating on the stock. “We haven’t heard anything about the restructuring.”

National Golf officials did not return calls, but the company’s latest moves appear to be aimed at reducing conflicts of interest between it and American Golf.

Publicly traded National Golf recently rejiggered its board, selecting outside director Charles S. Paul, chairman of IFilm Corp., to steer it through the restructuring. Paul was named interim chief executive of National Golf and chairman of the independent committee of its board. Insurance executive Richard A. Archer and Edward Sause, chief financial officer of privately held American Golf, also resigned from the board, leaving National Golf’s board with five members, three of them independent. The independent committee has hired bankers Lazard Freres Co. as its financial advisor and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz as legal advisor as National Golf pursues restructuring.