Simon Property Group Inc. (SPG)

Simon Property Group owns, develops and manages shopping, dining, entertainment and mixed-use destinations, mainly malls, Premium Outlets and The Mills. It is an Indiana corporation and a self-administered, self-managed REIT. All the real estate and other assets sit in Simon Property Group, L.P., a majority-owned Indiana partnership, which under its partnership agreement is required to pay all of Simon's expenses.

The portfolio

At the end of 2025 Simon owned or held an interest in 212 income-producing properties in the United States: 108 malls, 70 Premium Outlets, 16 Mills, six lifestyle centres and 12 other retail properties, across 38 states and Puerto Rico. Internationally it held interests in 42 properties, primarily in Asia, Europe and Canada.

On top of that it held a 22.2 percent equity stake in Klépierre, a listed Paris-based real estate company with shopping centres in 13 European countries.

Until 31 October 2025 Simon held an 88 percent non-controlling interest in The Taubman Realty Group. On that date it bought the remaining 12 percent it did not own.

The investments that are not property

Grouped as other platform investments: interests in retail operations, including Catalyst Brands; an e-commerce venture, Rue Gilt Groupe, which operates shop.simon.com; and Jamestown, a global real estate investment and management company. The filing notes that investments in entities engaged in non-real estate activities are made primarily through a taxable REIT subsidiary, because a REIT cannot hold them directly.

The tax rules that shape the balance sheet

REIT qualification sets limits on both the assets and the income. Simon cannot let its real estate and other qualifying assets, such as cash, fall below 75 percent of total assets. It must derive at least 75 percent of gross income from real property or mortgages on real property, including rents from real property, dividends from other REITs and, in certain circumstances, interest from temporary investments, and at least 95 percent from those sources plus dividends, interest and gains on securities. It must distribute at least 90 percent of REIT taxable income, and pays no US federal corporate income tax as long as it distributes not less than 100 percent.

Because the income has to go out rather than be retained, Simon regularly goes to the debt markets to fund acquisitions, development and redevelopment, and to refinance maturing debt. It has a $5.0 billion unsecured revolving credit facility and a $3.5 billion supplemental unsecured revolving facility. The covenants in those facilities and in the indentures restrict total debt to 65 percent of total assets, or 60 percent in relation to certain debt, and secured debt to 50 percent, and require compliance with other financial ratios. The company says the practical limit on borrowing is also its wish to hold investment grade ratings, which it says it strives to maintain at all times.

What it competes with

The filing is broad about competition: malls, outlet centres, community and lifestyle centres and other shopping centres, in the United States and abroad, and internet retailing sites and catalogues, including those of its own tenants, which give retailers distribution routes that do not need a physical store. It states that competitive alternatives could materially affect both its ability to lease space and the level of rents it can obtain, and that the competition runs to acquiring prime sites as well as to attracting tenants.

Against that, the company names what it believes makes its properties desirable to retailers: the quality, location and variety of tenants; its management and operational expertise; its experience and relationships with tenants, lenders and suppliers; its marketing initiatives and consumer-focused corporate alliances; and what it calls the efficiency and immediacy of physical retail.

From Simon Property Group's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025. The filing