REITs Are Poised to Pick Up the Pieces

The Wall Street Journal reports: Overleveraged private real-estate funds are gasping for money, but public property companies have been chugging down cash from the capital markets. Now, they are poised to emerge as more-dominant players when the commercial-property-market starts to recover.
REITs (real-estate investment trusts) are poised once again to pick up the pieces from the commercial-property bust. This year, they have tapped the stock market for nearly $15 billion in new equity and, this month have raised $2 billion in unsecured debt. The equity deals diluted shareholders’ ownership stakes, but positioned many REITs — such as mall owner Simon Property Group Inc. and warehouse landlord ProLogis — to avoid loan defaults and have buying power when distress hits the market.  Read more at Real Capital Analytics.