From the three aspects of business line selection, value chain positioning and capital resource integration, three mainstream asset-light strategy models have been formed in the field of commercial real estate:

Mode 1 "Wanda mode" with operators as the core

This model is very popular in commercial real estate in Europe and America. For example, RTM Chuangge Outlets (Beijing) Commercial Management Co., Ltd. is directly positioned as a commercial real estate operator and serves commercial real estate developers with professional operating experience and resources. For example, the light asset model implemented by Wanda Commercial Real Estate Plan is to choose to cooperate with investment institutions with new projects, which also belongs to this category.

As the largest commercial real estate developer in China, Wanda's early model was to acquire land at low cost on the one hand, and to make up for the deposit of funds held by department stores, hotels and other properties with the cash collected from the sale of properties on the other.

The second model is the "tishman speyer model" with investment institutions as the core.

Through the joint venture fund model in tishman speyer, tishman speyer not only accelerated its expansion, but also shared more than 40% of the project income with less than 5% capital investment (usually only 1%).

Tishman speyer Fund is operated by its Australian subsidiary (tishman speyer).

Speyer Australia) and the global portfolio management department at headquarters (Global Portflio

Management) has been completed. The former is responsible for the issuance management of the only Australian listed REITs fund in tishman speyer, while the latter is responsible for the operation management of the remaining 65,438+02 unlisted real estate investment funds.

Tishman speyer fund operation mode

TSOF ownership structure

Mode 3 "Kaide mode" of operation and investment integration.

Kaide's model is to package the investment, development or acquisition projects into private equity funds or trust funds. The fund itself holds part of the equity, and the other part is held by overseas institutional investors such as pension funds and insurance funds. After the project operates stably and realizes asset appreciation, it will exit in the form of REITs and make circular investment. Among domestic benchmark housing enterprises, Vanke's commercial real estate light asset strategy model is considered as a typical representative of CapitaLand model.

Kaide operation mode

From the incubation within the group, to the development and cultivation of private equity funds, and then to the realization of the value and stable income of REITs, CapitaLand has built a complete investment and exit process from developers to private equity funds to REITs. CapitaLand has built an investment property growth channel with real estate fund as the core, and this "real estate development+capital operation" model is the core of CapitaLand's real estate business model.

Kaide Commercial's Full Business Chain

Three, four ways to realize light assets in commercial real estate

From the point of view of improving the liquidity of enterprise assets, improving the enterprise's ability to resist risks, effectively utilizing external resources to achieve rapid development, and improving the return on net assets (ROE) so as to improve performance in a short time, it is very necessary for commercial real estate enterprises to depreciate.

There are four ways for commercial real estate enterprises to realize light asset management: sale and leaseback, REITs, commercial trust and cooperative development.

Analysis of advantages and disadvantages of four ways: leaseback, REITs, commercial trust and cooperative development.

1, the most realistic way is to sell and rent back.

Sale-and-leaseback is a common financing method for industrial enterprises, which is similar to mortgage or pledge loans that pay interest by installments and repay the principal at maturity, except that the counterparty is changed from a bank to a leasing company. The advantage of after-sale leaseback is not only to exchange fixed assets for working capital to support the operation of enterprises, but also to remove fixed assets from the balance sheet and not to extract depreciation of fixed assets during leaseback period, thus improving the liquidity of enterprises, increasing the liquidity ratio and rapidly improving operating performance.

Because of this, leaseback is not only a financing tool and method to solve the liquidity demand of enterprises, but also often used by listed companies to improve their operating performance in a short time to push up the stock price. Its core value lies in moving the fixed assets out of the balance sheet, making the company's assets lighter and more liquid.

Although it is still a gray area for real estate enterprises to use the method of sale and leaseback for financing, as one of the important ways of commercial property sales of small and medium-sized real estate enterprises, sale and leaseback has become one of the important sources of funds to support small and medium-sized commercial real estate development projects. Small and medium-sized low-yield enterprises have poor credit, often in the form of large-scale sales, and promise too high return conditions when pre-selling shops. When the leaseback expires, they often fail to fulfill the buyback, which leads to mass incidents and is repeatedly stopped by the construction authorities.

From the perspective of financing alone, commercial properties in operation can be carried out by applying for long-term operating property loans from banks. The capital cost is lower than the rent level of sale and leaseback, and the term can be as long as 8- 10 years. However, under the mode of bank loan financing, commercial real estate, as a fixed asset, only provides mortgage or pledge to banks as a guarantee measure and credit enhancement condition, and it is still included in the fixed assets account of enterprises and cannot be removed from the balance sheet. Sale and leaseback is a financing method, because the commercial property rights are transferred to financial leasing companies or investment institutions, which is completely separated from the off-balance sheet and realizes the enterprise's light assets.

Because of this, leaseback can become one of the optional ways for large commercial real estate enterprises or large retail enterprises with more commercial properties to convert assets into assets. Under the existing legal and industrial policy environment in China, leaseback is the most realistic way.

2. Using REITs to realize light assets.

In fact, due to the high property prices, the rental income of commercial real estate in China is usually only 2-5%, which is difficult to cover the bank loan interest rate in the same period. It is difficult to be established in basic business logic and cannot support the implementation of REITs.

Two forms of real estate investment trust funds

3. Using commercial trust to realize light assets.

The outstanding advantage of commercial trust is that it can realize the realization of balance sheet or most assets, and it is a very good financial support tool for realizing light assets or expanding commercial real estate by light assets.

With the support of this financial tool, developers can realize "light assets+heavy management" and "small stock trading", while professional commercial real estate operations can solve the problem of insufficient funds and realize operational expansion with the support of commercial trusts. Commercial trust is an innovative product and financing tool supported by the capital markets of Hong Kong and Singapore in recent years. It is similar to REITs, but it is more flexible than REITs, so it can be said to be an upgraded version of REITs.

Characteristics of commercial trust

4. Realize the development of light assets through cooperative development.

At present, domestic financial support tools are insufficient, assets or rights and interests are still difficult to go abroad, and the scale of investment institutions is generally small, so it is difficult to support large commercial real estate projects or large real estate enterprises to realize light assets. Cooperative development or cooperation with professional investment management institutions has become a more realistic choice.

Vanke/Wanda cooperative development model

After listing, Wanda Commercial Real Estate has changed the mode of "rolling assets with cash flow" and "selling to support rent", and will embark on the development road of "paying equal attention to both light and heavy".

Four points that should be paid attention to in developing light assets

1, good capital operation ability is the key to the success of the light asset model-the development and acquisition of properties in the early stage need to occupy a lot of money, CapitaLand adopts "REITs+ private equity fund" to solve the problem of property development and cultivation, while tishman speyer adopts high financial leverage acquisition to achieve scale expansion;

2. Good operation and management ability is the foundation of success-both REITs in Singapore and the United States obtain excess returns through mature and excellent operation and management ability in the later period;

3. Optimizing the asset portfolio is the driving force for success-Singapore Kaide and tishman speyer often improve the overall return on investment by constantly optimizing the asset portfolio;

4. Strict risk control is the guarantee of success-the Boston model of the United States grasps the industry cycle through strict asset trading principles (P/FFO or rental return rate/capital cost), thus avoiding risks, realizing low buying and high selling, and improving the overall return on investment.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) abstract

Paying more attention to assets or neglecting assets strategy is a rational choice made by enterprises according to the development environment and strategic needs of enterprises. There is no question of which is better or worse, and even the conversion between light and heavy is only a temporary need for enterprise development.

Biaomai Commercial Real Estate believes that the development of both asset-heavy and asset-light development models requires a certain amount of time and capital investment, while the financial leverage ratio of the asset-light model is higher, which can enable commercial real estate developers to better break through the capital bottleneck and achieve rapid development. With the gradual maturity of the domestic financial market, commercial real estate developers should gradually build REITs platform, integrate financial resources at the front end, improve operational capability at the back end, and stick to the risk bottom line to avoid the tishman speyer tragedy and achieve rapid and steady development.

Under the background of economic virtualization promoted by the rapid progress of Internet technology, the concept of wealth and enterprise are also advancing with the times, and the connotation and extension of assets are also constantly developing and changing. The sustained and healthy development of enterprises is the eternal appeal of asset management.