We previously profiled the public debate between Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital and Eric Hovde's Hovde Capital over General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP). Another interesting debate is unfolding over The St. Joe Company (NYSE: JOE), between David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital and Bruce Berkowitz's Fairholme Funds. The St. Joe Company operates resorts and timberland, but its primary asset consists of approximately 577,000 acres of land in the Florida panhandle, 70% of which is within 15 miles of the beach.
The debate over JOE has been ongoing since at least May 23, 2007, when Einhorn used The Ira Sohn Investment Research Conference (an annual forum where select hedge fund managers present their investment ideas to raise money for charity) as a platform to present his short thesis. At the time, JOE was trading at $55 and Einhorn valued it at $15. JOE dropped 10% after Einhorn's presentation and nearly 50% in the subsequent six months (of course, this was during the general market meltdown in the second half of 2007). Notes from the presentation were passed around at the time and we have shown below in full certain notes compiled by BTIG and re-printed on ZeroHedge…