Highlands REIT (HHDS) Risk Analysis

Our charter provides that our board of directors may revoke or otherwise terminate our REIT election, without the approval of our stockholders, if it determines that it is no longer in our best interest to attempt to, or continue to qualify as a REIT. If we cease to be a REIT, we would become subject to U.S. federal income tax on our taxable income and would no longer be required to distribute most of our taxable income to our stockholders, which may have adverse consequences on our total return to our stockholders.

Presently, we have no plans to list our shares of common stock on any securities exchange or other market, there is no established trading market for our shares, nor is there any assurance that one may develop. Our charter also prohibits the ownership of more than 9.8% (in value or number of shares, whichever is more restrictive) of the aggregate of the outstanding shares of any class or series of our capital stock by any person unless exempted prospectively or retroactively by our board. This may inhibit investors from purchasing a large portion of our shares. Our charter also does not require us to seek stockholder approval to liquidate our assets by a specified date, nor does our charter require us to list our shares for trading on a securities exchange or other market by a specified date or provide any other type of liquidity to our stockholders. Therefore, it will be difficult for you to sell your shares promptly or at all, including in the event of an emergency, and if you are able to sell your shares, you may have to sell them at a substantial discount from the estimated value per share.

On December 17, 2024, we announced an estimated value of our common stock equal to $0.31 per share. Our board of directors engaged Real Globe Advisors, LLC ("Real Globe"), an independent third-party real estate advisory firm, to estimate the per share value of our common stock on a fully diluted basis as of December 15, 2024. As with any methodology used to estimate value, the methodology employed by Real Globe and the recommendations made by us were based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that may not be accurate or complete. Further, different parties using different assumptions and estimates could derive a different estimated value per share, which could be significantly different from our estimated value per share. The estimated per share value does not represent (i) the amount at which our shares would trade at a national securities exchange, (ii) the amount a stockholder would obtain if he or she tried to sell his or her shares, (iii) the amount per share that stockholders would receive in a sale of the entire Company in a single transaction, or (iv) the amount stockholders would receive if we liquidated our assets and distributed the proceeds after paying all of our expenses and liabilities. Accordingly, with respect to the estimated value per share, we can give no assurance that: - a stockholder would be able to resell his or her shares at this estimated value;- a stockholder would ultimately realize distributions per share equal to our estimated value per share upon liquidation of our assets and settlement of our liabilities or a sale of the Company;- our shares would trade at a price equal to or greater than the estimated value per share if we listed them on a national securities exchange;- the certain estimated corporate-level transaction costs that we would expect to incur in connection with a future potential liquidity event reflected in our estimated value will be incurred at the level estimated by us; or - the methodology used to estimate our value per share would be acceptable to FINRA or that the estimated value per share will satisfy the applicable annual valuation requirements under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended ("ERISA") and the Code, with respect to employee benefit plans subject to ERISA and other retirement plans or accounts subject to Section 4975 of the Code.

Your percentage ownership in us may be diluted in the future because of new equity issuances, capital market transactions or otherwise, including, without limitation, equity awards that may be granted to our directors, officers and employees.

Under Maryland law generally, a director is required to perform his or her duties in good faith, in a manner he or she reasonably believes to be in our best interests and with the care that an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would use under similar circumstances. Under Maryland law, directors are presumed to have acted in accordance with this standard of conduct. In addition, our charter eliminates the liability of our directors and officers to us and our stockholders for money damages, except for liability resulting from: - actual receipt of an improper benefit or profit in money, property or services; or - active and deliberate dishonesty by the director or officer that was established by a final judgment as being material to the cause of action adjudicated. Our charter authorizes us to obligate ourselves and our bylaws obligate us, to the maximum extent permitted by Maryland law in effect from time to time, to indemnify and to pay or reimburse reasonable expenses in advance of final disposition of a proceeding to any present or former director or officer who is made or threatened to be made a party to the proceeding by reason of his or her service to us in that capacity and certain other capacities. As a result, we and our stockholders may have more limited rights against our directors and officers than might otherwise exist absent the current provisions in our charter and bylaws.

Certain provisions of the Maryland General Corporation Law ("MGCL") may have the effect of deterring a third party from making a proposal to acquire us or of impeding a change in our control under circumstances that otherwise could provide the holders of our common stock with the opportunity to benefit from a sale of our common stock, including: - "business combination" provisions that, subject to limitations, prohibit certain business combinations between us and an "interested stockholder" (defined generally as any person who beneficially owns, directly or indirectly, 10% or more of the voting power of our outstanding voting stock or an affiliate or associate of ours who was the beneficial owner, directly or indirectly, of 10% or more of the voting power of our then outstanding voting stock at any time within the two-year period immediately prior to the date in question) for five years after the most recent date on which the stockholder becomes an interested stockholder, and thereafter impose fair price and/or supermajority stockholder voting requirements on these combinations; and - "control share" provisions that provide that "control shares" of our company (defined as voting shares that, when aggregated with other shares controlled by the stockholder, entitle the stockholder to exercise one of three increasing ranges of voting power in electing directors) acquired in a "control share acquisition" (defined as the direct or indirect acquisition of ownership or control of issued and outstanding control shares) have no voting rights except to the extent approved by our stockholders by the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of all the votes entitled to be cast on the matter, excluding all interested shares. As permitted by Maryland law, we have elected, by resolution of our board of directors, to opt out of the business combination provisions of the MGCL, with respect to business combinations that have been approved by our board of directors (including a majority of directors who are not affiliated with the interested stockholder), and, pursuant to a provision in our bylaws, to exempt any acquisition of our stock from the control share provisions of the MGCL. However, our board of directors may by resolution elect to repeal the exemption from the business combination provisions of the MGCL and may by amendment to our bylaws opt into the control share provisions of the MGCL at any time in the future. If we have a class of equity securities registered under the Exchange Act and at least three independent directors, certain provisions of the MGCL permit our board of directors, without stockholder approval and regardless of what is currently provided in our charter or bylaws, to adopt certain governance provisions, some of which (for example, a classified board) we do not have. These provisions may have the effect of limiting or precluding a third party from making an acquisition proposal for us or of delaying, deferring or preventing a change in our control under circumstances that otherwise could provide the holders of our common stock with the opportunity to benefit from a sale of our common stock. Our charter contains a provision whereby we elect, at such time as we become eligible to do so, to be subject to the provisions of Title 3, Subtitle 8 of the MGCL relating to the filling of vacancies on our board of directors. If our board of directors were to elect to be subject to the provision of Subtitle 8 providing for a classified board or the business combination provisions of the MGCL or if the provision of our bylaws opting out of the control share acquisition provisions of the MGCL were amended or rescinded, these provisions of the MGCL could have anti-takeover effects.

In order for us to maintain our qualification as a REIT under the Code, no more than 50% of the outstanding shares of our common stock may be beneficially owned, directly or indirectly, by five or fewer individuals at any time during the last half of each taxable year (other than the first taxable year for which an election to be a REIT has been made). Unless exempted by our board of directors, prospectively or retroactively, our charter prohibits any person or group from owning more than 9.8% in value or in number of shares, whichever is more restrictive, of the outstanding shares of any class or series of our capital stock. These provisions may have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing a change in control of us, including an extraordinary transaction such as a merger, tender offer or sale of all or substantially all of our assets that might involve a premium price for holders of our common stock. If anyone transfers shares in a way that would violate the ownership limit, or prevent us from maintaining our qualification as a REIT under the U.S. federal income tax laws, those shares instead will be transferred to a trust for the benefit of a charitable beneficiary and will be either purchased by us or sold to a person whose ownership of the shares will not violate the ownership limit. If this transfer to a trust fails to prevent such a violation or our continued qualification as a REIT, then the initial intended transfer shall be null and void from the outset. The intended transferee of those shares will be deemed never to have owned the shares. Anyone who acquires shares in violation of the ownership limit or the other restrictions on transfer in our charter bears the risk of suffering a financial loss when the shares are sold if the value of our shares falls between the date of purchase and the date of redemption or sale.

Our board may classify or reclassify any unissued shares of common or preferred stock into other classes or series of stock and establish the preferences, conversion or other rights, voting powers, restrictions, limitations as to dividends and other distributions, qualifications, and terms or conditions of redemption of the stock and may amend our charter from time to time to increase or decrease the aggregate number of shares or the number of shares of any class or series that we have authority to issue without stockholder approval. Thus, our board of directors could authorize us to issue shares of preferred stock with terms and conditions that could subordinate the rights of the holders of our common stock or shares of preferred stock or common stock that could have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing a change in control of us, including an extraordinary transaction such as a merger, tender offer or sale of all or substantially all of our assets, that might provide a premium price for holders of our common stock.

We have adopted a policy that any transaction, agreement or relationship in which any of our directors, officers or employees has a material direct or indirect pecuniary interest must be approved by a majority of our disinterested directors. Other than this policy, however, we may not adopt additional formal procedures for the review and approval of conflict of interest transactions generally. As such, our policies and procedures may not be successful in eliminating the influence of conflicts of interest.