Howard Lorber Sells Douglas Elliman Stock to CEO Liebowitz

Douglas Elliman’s new chairman and CEO acquired 1.1 million shares of the company from ex-chairman and CEO Howard Lorber, sending the stock price up.

Michael Liebowitz’s MSL 18 Holdings LLC paid $1.68 per share for a total of about $1.8 million. The LLC now owns about 1.5 million shares of Elliman, and he owns 97,000 shares directly, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Together, his shares are valued at nearly $3.6 million based on the $2.28 stock price as of Tuesday afternoon. Elliman’s stock price has been in the dumps for months, dropping to as low as $1 per share in September.

“A million shares is a real buy and obviously I’m very bullish on the company and what we’re doing,” Liebowitz told The Real Deal on Tuesday.

Then a board member, Liebowitz was among the leaders at the company TRD previously reported bought shares as the company’s stock price fell over the summer. His buy brought his ownership to roughly 500,000 shares, or less than 1 percent of the company.

At the time of his exit, Lorber owned a more than 7 percent stake in the company, including 6.5 million shares. The SEC filing announcing his retirement said the former chairman had nearly $5 million worth of unvested shares, which were canceled.

Liebowitz was named Lorber’s replacement upon his sudden exit from the company in October. The longtime executive was pushed out by Elliman’s board following an internal investigation into the company’s “sexually charged work culture,” the Wall Street Journal reported days after Lorber resigned.

Prior to his exit, Lorber admitted to having intimate relationships with two Elliman brokers, according to Bloomberg.

Elliman initially said Lorber’s retirement, which came two months before his contract was up for renewal, was his decision and “not due to any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices.”

Liebowitz, who was on the board before he became president and CEO, said in an appearance at TRD’s Miami Real Estate Forum that he has known Lorber for a long time and they share a “good” relationship. When asked by TRD Publisher Amir Korangy about the investigation of the company’s work culture following the rape allegations against Elliman’s former star brokers Oren and Tal Alexander, he said it was “before his time” as CEO.

Scott Durkin, CEO of the firm’s brokerage segment, was terminated a week after Lorber stepped down. Richard Ferrari, the head of the firm’s New York and Northeast operations, took over Durkin’s post.

Liebowitz has said the company is now heading “in a different direction.”

“It’s a departure from the past,” he said last month, “and a new generation of leadership.”

Sheridan Wall contributed reporting.