REITs, whose full name is "Real Estate Investment Trust Fund", refers to a standardized financial product that is publicly traded on the stock exchange and converts real estate assets or interests with sustained and stable returns into listed securities with strong liquidity through securitization. Its essence is real estate securitization. Generally speaking, it can be understood that asset management institutions "cut" houses with poor liquidity into several securitization products for sale through a series of product designs, providing a way of allocation for both the supply and demand sides of funds. As an investment with relatively moderate returns and risks, the emergence of public offering REITs is expected to expand the social capital investment model, make the "heavy" real estate "light", enrich the residents' financial management "basket" and revitalize the whole real estate market.
Promote the formation of a benign closed loop of infrastructure investment.
At present, many countries in the world have established REITs market. The origin of REITs in China can be traced back to the early 20th century (265,438+04), but it was not until 2065,438+04 that REITs represented by "CITIC Sailing Special Asset Management Plan" officially started. The so-called "class" means that compared with real REITs, the system design is not perfect enough and the product structure is different.
In recent years, with the maturity of China's legal framework, regulatory environment and market conditions, as well as the practical experience of REITs in the early stage, a series of policies and systems were issued last year, which provided important support for the launch of infrastructure public offering REITs products.
"Piloting the public offering of REITs in the infrastructure sector will help deepen the reform of the financial supply side, further enhance the ability of the capital market to serve the real economy, increase the proportion of equity financing, and broaden the channels for social capital investment." At the Greater Bay Area Infrastructure REITs Development Forum held on February 25th, Li Chao, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, expressed the hope that all parties would unify their understanding and form joint efforts to jointly promote the pilot work, sum up experience in time, improve the supply of legal systems and related institutional arrangements, and promote the institutionalized and standardized development of the REITs market.
Wang Gang, Secretary-General of China REITs Alliance, said that from the perspective of enterprises, launching a pilot program of public offering REITs will help to revitalize existing infrastructure assets, raise equity funds for the society, and use them for enterprises to make up for shortcomings and invest in new projects, cultivate new high-quality infrastructure assets, and then inject REITs when conditions are ripe, forming a benign closed loop of infrastructure investment; From the perspective of investors, the entry of mature infrastructure assets into the capital market will help to provide financial products with long-term allocation and stable dividends.
"From the characteristics of infrastructure REITs products, because it can naturally solve some internal contradictions in the market, it will be very attractive to investors and financiers. The emergence of publicly offered REITs is the choice of the times, which is conducive to enriching China's capital market products, realizing the exploration and innovation of financial products, improving the efficiency of financial service entities, and helping China's economic transformation and upgrading. " Wang Gang thinks.
There are many kinds of approved products.
On April 2 1 day, following the announcement by the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges that four infrastructure public offerings were accepted, on April 28, six more public offerings were submitted. So far, the total number of public offerings has reached 10. On May 14, the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges approved 9 infrastructure public offerings of REITs.
The reporter found out that the nine items that have been approved at present are rich in types, involving highways, warehousing and logistics, industrial parks, water affairs and other fields. Most of the project shareholders are large central enterprises, state-owned enterprises or large leading private enterprises, and most of the projects are located in national key strategic development areas.
The relevant person in charge of the public offering REITs business of AVIC Fund said that the first batch of four single projects declared on April 2 1 have two formats: franchise and park property rights. Franchise income is relatively stable, and there is more room for appreciation of property rights projects. The above projects all meet the standards and requirements of the National Development and Reform Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission for basic assets. In addition, the reported 10 single project is very representative in terms of basic asset quality, format distribution and regional distribution, with excellent asset quality and stable cash flow. Compared with the standards stipulated in the document, the requirements are higher and the best admission is made.
Xinhua Fund combed the first batch of four single projects and found three characteristics. First, the background of project shareholders is outstanding, and they are all large central enterprises or local state-owned enterprises; Second, the project quality is good, and the profitability of the first batch of projects is stable; Third, the original right holder supported the successful issuance of the project, and the subscription ratio of the original right holder of the first batch of projects greatly exceeded the prescribed 20%.
According to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, under the guidance and deployment of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the market will continue to do a good job in the inquiry, sale and listing of the first batch of infrastructure public offering REITs in accordance with the relevant procedures and requirements for public offering of securities after the relevant infrastructure public offering REITs have been registered and approved by the Securities Regulatory Commission, so as to form a market scale and market synergy as soon as possible and create a good demonstration effect of the first batch of pilots.
Market opportunities and risks coexist.
"It is foreseeable that on the basis of the pilot of public offering REITs, the pilot scope and area of such products will gradually expand, and the issuance of public offering REITs may gradually become normal." Wang Gang believes that with the gradual improvement of the legal framework and tax policy of public offering REITs in China, the characteristics of high transparency of basic assets and stable dividend income will make REITs an important choice for investors' asset allocation.
In the future, the development of domestic REITs may face some risks and challenges. Guo Lili, an analyst in TF Securities, believes that, firstly, the price of REITs may be affected by interest rate fluctuations, which is reflected in securities pricing, capital pressure and profitability. In addition, the profitability and value of REITs may also be affected by the relationship between market supply and demand.
Secondly, in terms of taxation, the relevant tax provisions of REITs have not yet been issued, which may bring uncertainty to the investment income of such wealth management products. If REITs enter the real estate industry in the future, they may face policy shocks involving the traditional real estate industry.
Thirdly, in terms of financial risks, the potential risks of REITs' basic asset property rights include legal defects and disputes in the process of asset property rights and land ownership. If REITs do not have enough funds to ensure business operation, it may lead to the depreciation of real estate or the suspension of construction. There may also be cases where the lessee refuses to perform the lease or defaults on the rent, the rental market price drops sharply or other factors cause the property assets to fail to operate normally, which may adversely affect the cash flow of infrastructure.
Public offering REITs may also face market fluctuations in the initial stage of issuance. Zhang Bingwen, an analyst at Trust Investment Research Institute, believes that there may be two situations in the initial stage of public offering of REITs: First, similar to the "hot" IPO listing of some stocks, REITs have a continuous daily limit. Second, it may be cold, and the price of similar products in Public Offering of Fund fluctuates greatly after listing and trading. In a word, public offering of REITs is an investment opportunity worthy of investors' attention, but we should consider our own risk tolerance comprehensively and participate cautiously.
Lin Caiyi, vice president of China Chief Economist Forum Research Institute, thinks that the scale of infrastructure stock in China may exceed 65,438 trillion yuan. According to the asset securitization rate of 1%, the potential market size of infrastructure REITs exceeds 1 trillion yuan. With the approval of the first batch of infrastructure public offering REITs in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, this new trillion-dollar investment and financing market will be activated in the future, which is of great significance to the construction of China capital market and the guidance of infrastructure equity investment. (Economic Daily reporter Ma Chunyang Zhou Lin)