The Link REIT
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| Industry | property |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2004 in Hong Kong |
| Founder | Hong Kong Housing Authority |
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Key people
|
George Hongchoy |
| Products | Shopping malls, parking lots |
| Owner | : 0823 |
| Website | linkreit |
Link Real Estate Investment Trust (Chinese: 領展房地產投資信託基金, or 領展;: 0823), previously known as The Link Real Estate Investment Trust (Chinese: 領匯房地產投資信託基金, or 領匯), managed by Link Asset Management Limited, is the first real estate investment trust in Hong Kong and currently the largest in Asia in terms of market capitalisation. It is wholly owned by private and institutional investors.
Link REIT's portfolio consists of properties with an internal floor area of about 10 million square feet of retail space and approximately 72,000 car park spaces, based almost entirely on the assets formerly operated by the Hong Kong Housing Authority. Meanwhile, it has a development project in Kowloon Bay and two projects in Shanghai and Beijing respectively.
The REIT was created by the government, which hived off assets from the Housing Authority that included 151 shopping malls – mainly within public housing estates – and 79,000 parking spaces. The date for the listing was provisionally 16 December 2005, at a valuation of HK$22.2 billion (US$2.86 billion). Upon privatisation, Link Reit remains tied to terms in existing tenancy agreements, but will not longer require approval from government to increase rents for new leases. However, financial analysts expected attractive dividend yields – up to 7 per cent – from the privatised company and greater commercial orientation, although some feared that the scope for increasing rental income and cutting labour costs might be limited due to most of its properties being tied to the public housing sector.
IPO of The Link REIT, delayed for a year until 2005 through legal action by housing tenants worried that rents would rise, was eventually 18 times oversubscribed. About 510,000 Hong Kong residents, or seven percent of the city's population, placed US$36 billion of orders while institutional investors were ready to commit US$40 billion.
The IPO's joint global coordinators were Goldman Sachs, HSBC Holdings plc, and UBS AG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. was the financial adviser to the Housing Authority.
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