But his reputation for results led to his being brought in to Sydney for a meeting with executives from Investa and Morgan Stanley, scheduled to last a week. The strategy was based on being able to sell the company’s real estate assets at a premium price and use the proceeds to pay down the debt. When the global financial crisis had pushed the debt market off a cliff and real estate prices sank precipitously, the strategy was no longer viable. “The way the US tax laws work favors the use of debt,” MacDonald explains. Using equity rather than debt doesn’t have the same tax advantage because debt is tax deductible.

Source: Forbes November 26, 2016 10:49 UTC