About Matthew Diliberto
Matthew DiLiberto, CFO of SL Green Realty Corp., said in an April 2025 interview at Nareit's REITwise conference that the company has "pivoted to offense" and sees an "extraordinary amount of opportunity" in the current market environment. He stated that "dislocation and uncertainty breeds opportunity" and that the opportunity set for investing in real estate, joint ventures, or through the capital stack "continues to actually grow." DiLiberto noted that SL Green focuses on New York City office investments and uses a platform that can invest in "different ways" that others may not consider.
DiLiberto also discussed the challenges of these transactions, including the need to find capital from international institutions, which he described as a "24/7 operation" requiring frequent international travel. He highlighted the complexity of accounting for debt investments, noting that depending on the structure, the company may generate income through interest income, reduced interest expense, or consolidate debt stacks onto its balance sheet. DiLiberto added that while SL Green has been doing this for 25 years, the current environment continues to present "new hurdles."
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Matthew Diliberto's recent appearances.
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Transcript (8 segments)
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Interviewer0:00
Coming into the year we saw, we pivoted to offense. We saw a huge opportunity set and the recent dislocation and uncertainty breeds opportunity. So as we look at investing either direct in real estate, through joint ventures or more uniquely through the capital stack, the opportunity set continues to actually grow. Joining me today is Matt Diliberto, CFO with SL Green Realty. Matt, thanks so much for joining us today.
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Matthew Diliberto0:28
Pleasure.
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Interviewer0:30
Now, you were on a panel here at REITwise that highlighted the considerations that go into the acquisition of distressed assets. So, Green's been involved in numerous opportunistic and structured transactions over the years, including investing through joint ventures and your debt portfolio. Do you see this as an opportunity in this current market? And what type of investment structures are you seeing?
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Matthew Diliberto0:47
Green, we kind of pride ourselves on investing in unique ways. We're not very down the middle. We do a lot of joint ventures, we do invest through the debt stacks and the current environment which seems to be changing by the minute provides an extraordinary amount of opportunity. Coming into the year, we saw we pivoted to offense. We saw a huge opportunity set and the recent dislocation and uncertainty breeds opportunity. So as we look at investing either direct in real estate through joint ventures or more uniquely through the capital stack, the opportunity set continues to actually grow. We are specific to New York City and generally invest in office and with the pricing dislocation that comes, we can find opportunities because we have a platform that can invest in different ways. We can seek out opportunities and invest in certain ways that many others either don't think of or don't want to do.
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Interviewer1:45
And what are some of the challenges that these types of transactions face?
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Matthew Diliberto1:49
Well, first you're going to have to find the capital, right? We have a substantial amount of liquidity and a great balance sheet to invest on our own. But we believe in investing with partners that will enhance our returns and look to us as the operating investment manager. Seeking that capital primarily from international institutions is a 24/7 operation. We travel internationally quite a bit to go seek out that capital and then there's the added complication of just structuring these very complicated transactions whether they are joint ventures or more complicated the debt investing in the capital stacks.
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Interviewer2:29
And what are the broad legal and accounting considerations you've taken?
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Matthew Diliberto2:31
Yeah, the beauty of the firm I operate at is we have a lot of legal minds. So I'll try to stay away from the legal aspect. I will just say it's very complicated. The accounting considerations are not any less complicated. When you're doing straight real estate investing, those rules are, while deeply involved complicated, they're fairly well understood. The debt investments, depending on where you are in the stack and how much control you have, you can end up with varying types of accounting both on your balance sheet and your income statement. Sometimes you're generating income through interest income. Sometimes it's reduced interest expense. Sometimes you're consolidating debt stacks that you actually don't have anything to do with and you bring those things on your balance sheet. So, it's a pretty complicated world to dive into. We've been doing it for 25 years, so I think we're pretty good at it, but invariably, particularly in the environment that we're in right now, we're finding new hurdles.
