Syms fires back at Esopus, questions shareholder's true motives in demanding real estate information

By Lisa Kerner

Charlotte, N.C., June 12 - Syms Corp. responded on Thursday to shareholder Esopus Creek Value LP's June 10 letter to the company demanding a complete accounting of all of its owned real estate assets.

Marcy Syms, the company's chief executive officer, said Esopus' "gratuitous insults, unnecessary invective and incorrect and inflammatory innuendo serve no purpose" other than to cause the company to question the shareholder's true motives in writing to the board.

"Under the circumstances, we do not believe it behooves us to refute each and every one of your accusations on a line-by-line basis," Syms said in the letter.

"We think that our time would be much better spent 'minding the store' - both literally and figuratively," Syms added.

However, responding in principal, Syms clarified that the company owns slightly in excess of two million square feet of real estate.

Syms said it is time to call "a spade a spade," telling Esopus that Syms Corp. operates a chain of off-price retail stores and will not become a real estate development company no matter how much the shareholder wishes it were otherwise.

Esopus, in its letter, claimed there was a "large discrepancy" between the data reported in the company's financial filings and the data from local property tax records.

Specifically, Esopus said Syms Corp. actually owns approximately 2.05 million square feet of taxable retail space, warehouse and office space and other buildable space, compared with the approximately 1.4 million square feet of total owned space reported in the company's regulatory filings.

Esopus wants Syms Corp.'s independent accountant BDO Seidman to correct and publicly disclose the discrepancies.

The company is also accused of failing to itemize large amounts of rental income, according to an Esopus news release.

As a result of its findings, Esopus said it will not ratify the re-appointment of BDO Seidman and will withhold its proxy for all directors standing for re-election at the annual meeting on July 10.

The 4% shareholder had been part of a group that in January suggested fellow shareholders register some of their shares in their own names in an attempt to stop the company from deregistering its shares in December.

Syms Corp. is a Secaucus, N.J.-based off-price retailer.

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