Investors seen to gain as more sectors eye REIT
By Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte
THE country’s real estate investment trust pipeline (REIT) is expanding to include other industries as two more companies are eyeing to enter the REIT market.
“More REIT offerings make REIT investors and the investing public better off by giving them more choices or options that are more suited to their investment needs or requirements,” Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in an e-mail on Friday.
Renewable energy company Citicore Power, Inc. has expressed its plans to list an energy-focused REIT, which will include eight solar farms as initial assets of the portfolio.
“In the case of the renewable power industry, the REIT could be intertwined with this business model, in view of the [increasing] global trend for ESG-compliant (environmental, social, and governance) investments, thereby could help increase the appeal of a REIT for local and global investors that are particular to ESG standards or compliance,” Mr. Ricafort said.
Meanwhile, DoubleDragon Properties Corp. and Jollibee Foods Corp. are teaming up to create the country’s “first and largest” industrial REIT in 2022 via DoubleDragon’s industrial leasing unit, CentralHub Industrial Centers, Inc.
CentralHub has industrial warehouse complexes for warehousing, commissaries, cold storage facilities, and logistics distribution hubs. Jollibee will be infusing its commissary assets to the company to bump up CentralHub’s total industrial land portfolio to 39.8 hectares.
So far, the listed REIT firms — AREIT, Inc. and DoubleDragon’s DDMPR, Inc. — have commercial, office, and mixed-use developments on their portfolios.
Meanwhile, the three upcoming REIT offers sponsored separately by Filinvest Land, Inc. (FLI), Megaworld Corp., and Robinsons Land Corp. also highlight office spaces, along with retail and mixed-use developments.
FLI’s REIT recently received the go signal from the Securities and Exchange Commission, inching closer to an initial public offering. Megaworld and Robinsons Land are also awaiting regulatory approval for their respective REIT offers.
Darren Blaine T. Pangan, trader at Timson Securities, Inc., said Citicore Power’s REIT and the DoubleDragon-Jollibee REIT tie-up will give market participants “more ways to diversify their portfolio.”
“It seems great for the markets, an expanded menu of listed corporations may entice more investors to participate,” he said in a Viber message on Saturday, adding that it is an added method of raising capital for the firms.
RCBC’s Mr. Ricafort also said more REIT offers will boost competition among issuers.
“It would raise the bar in terms of the quality of the portfolio of real estate properties offered and the returns or dividend yields that they offer to the investing public,” Mr. Ricafort said.
