Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 23 (Reporter Yan Peng) A few days ago, Huaxia Jinmao Commercial REIT and Jiajin Beauty Consumer REIT announced the results of the confirmation ratio of subscription applications, and offline investors and public investors have achieved over-offering, and the enthusiasm of all parties in the market for infrastructure REITs has increased unabated.
At the 2023 year-end summary meeting of infrastructure REITs hosted by the Rise Real Estate Finance Research Institute, industry experts believe that the recommended issuance of REITs this year is expected to go steadily and quickly, and it is gradually becoming a trend to expand and strengthen REITs through expansion, which will help revitalize more high-quality existing infrastructure assets and give full play to the role of public REITs in serving the national strategy and supporting the real economy.
The picture shows the site of the 2023 year-end summary meeting of infrastructure REITs (courtesy of Rise Real Estate Finance Research Institute).
The popularity of the public REITs market continues unabated.
In 2023, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) recommended a total of 25 REITs projects (including 4 expansion projects) to the CSRC, 5 public REITs were listed for the first time, and the first batch of 4 public REITs completed the expansion. By the end of 2023, the total scale of issued and pending REITs was about 150 billion yuan.
After nearly three years of development, the enthusiasm of revitalizing stock assets and declaring REITs projects has increased significantly. In particular, in 2023, the Investment Department of the National Development and Reform Commission organized an open-door office meeting to answer questions face-to-face for nearly 100 projects that intend to apply for the issuance of infrastructure REITs, and reserve a large number of high-quality projects, laying a solid foundation for subsequent issuance and listing. Xu Chengbin, deputy director of the China International Engineering Consulting Research Center, said.
On January 30, Huaxia Jinmao Commercial REIT and Jiajin Beauty Consumer REIT announced the results of the confirmation ratio of subscription applications, and offline investors and public investors were over-offered, showing that all parties in the market are enthusiastic about public REITs.
The launch of REITs will help optimize the capital structure of related industries, reduce corporate debt ratios, and improve corporate risk resistance. Zhou Hongbin, executive vice president of Beijing Wumart Commercial Group Co., Ltd., believes that through the resource allocation of the REITs market, relevant industries and original equity holders can use the funds to expand the scale of business, focus on improving service quality and promoting technological innovation, so as to improve their competitiveness and profitability.
Expansion is an important way for the long-term development and scale expansion of the REITS market. The reporter learned that China's first photovoltaic public REIT, AVIC Jingneng Photovoltaic REIT, has declared its expansion to the regulatory authorities, and will explore the mixed model of comprehensive assets and strive to complete the expansion this year.
REITs are of great significance for optimizing the cash flow arrangement of enterprises, improving the financial statement structure and asset value, and through the issuance and expansion of REITs, a virtuous circle can be formed between funds, assets and capital. Liu Dongsheng, vice president of Beijing Energy International Holdings, said.
In Xu Chengbin's view, in view of the gradual improvement of the early guidance and evaluation mechanism, it is expected that the speed of recommendation review will be significantly accelerated this year, the number of issued and listed REITs and the market size will double, and major national projects are expected to enter the market. At the same time, more investors will begin to favor REITs, and it has gradually become a trend to expand and strengthen REITs.
REITs have entered the fast lane of high-quality development.
At present, the underlying assets of listed REITs in China involve highways, industrial parks, warehousing and logistics, etc., and a large number of REITs projects are in the declaration stage.
Zhang Xiao, deputy director of the National Investment Project Evaluation Center of the National Development and Reform Commission, believes that the original equity holders need to further strengthen the screening of underlying assets and improve the quality of assets; Fund managers, asset-backed managers, and relevant intermediaries need to "solve the problem" and further strengthen project analysis and demonstration. At the same time, the regulatory authorities need to "move steadily" to strengthen the quality of REITs project declaration and issuance efficiency.
Yang Jing, chief financial officer of Shanghai Lingang Economic Development (Group)**, said that with the in-depth practice of REITs, there is still room for policy optimization in practical work at the local level, and it is recommended to further clarify the relevant policies of REITs in combination with the practical situation, form unified standards and standardized implementation rules, and promote the efficient and normalized issuance and sustainable high-quality development of public REITs.
In 2024, the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange will continue to vigorously promote the development of the REITS market. The reporter learned that the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges will continue to strengthen the construction of the REITS market system, focusing on improving the level of standardized disclosure, promoting the investment of REITS ETF indexation products, and optimizing the accounting measurement and valuation of REITs, while increasing the supply of high-quality projects.
At present, the consensus from the industry is that in the context of normalized issuance, public REITs will gradually achieve effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth.