MoatScopeStar HoldingsSTHO
Spin-off from iStar Inc. (now Safehold Inc.) (SAFE) · Mar 31, 2023 · Nasdaq
0.153 Star Holdings common shares for every share of iStar common stock
Documents
Both companies today
Moat ratings, quality scores and fair value estimates are MoatScope research opinions and refresh with the data pipeline. Price / FV below 1.00× means the shares trade under our base-case estimate.
What is being separated
Star Holdings holds the legacy non-ground-lease assets of iStar — real estate finance, operating properties and land and development — with an aggregate carrying value of about $427 million at the end of 2022, to be managed and monetized as a stand-alone company.
Stated rationaleThe spin-off was a condition of iStar's merger with Safehold, which created a self-managed pure-play ground lease company; separating the legacy assets let the combined Safehold focus on ground leases.
The four questions
Indiscriminate selling
StrongManagement incentives
AbsentThe hidden jewel
AbsentLeverage
PartialThe write-up
iStar completed its spin-off of Star Holdings on March 31, 2023, distributing 0.153 Star Holdings shares for every iStar share in a taxable distribution, immediately before iStar merged with Safehold and took its name. Star Holdings holds the legacy assets Safehold did not want — non-ground-lease loans, land and operating properties — together with a stake in Safehold shares, and it is externally managed by Safehold under a management agreement. It arranged a senior secured term loan of up to $115 million at separation. On MoatScope's framework Star Holdings carries no moat rating and a quality score of 4 at a $130 million market value, trading at $9.93; its earnings-based fair value estimate is not meaningful for a liquidating vehicle. Safehold carries no moat rating and a quality score of 24 at $1.1 billion, with a fair value estimate the framework likewise cannot compute for a ground-lease REIT.
Not investment advice. Terms are as stated in the latest filing; spin-off shares are often thinly covered and volatile in their first months. Write-up dated Sep 8, 2026.