Online competition pushes Toys R Us into bankruptcy | 3 REITs may list on the Budapest Stock Exchange next year | India tweaks REIT rules for wider capital participation
September 19, 2017
The daily source on REITs and real estate investment
Toys R Us has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after struggling to compete with online retailers. The company has arranged more than $3 billion in financing to continue operating while it restructures.
Three closely held Hungarian companies are expected to set up REITs next year on the Budapest Stock Exchange, according to Rita Szalay, director of the exchange's listing division. The country amended a 2011 REIT law, which went into effect in June and made it easier to raise money for new projects.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India is now allowing REITs and infrastructure investment trusts to issue bonds in addition to raising funds through equity. The regulator also tweaked the rules to allow single-asset REITs and to permit strategic investors to participate in REITs.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is widely expected to announce this week the start of passive unwinding of the central bank's $4.5 trillion portfolio, but how much the balance sheet will shrink remains unknown. The Fed's liabilities have increased, so the balance sheet must remain larger than the 2008 level, which was less than $900 billion.
Well-prepared and heavily fortressed data centers rode out Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, keeping the Internet and cloud up despite the storms' destruction. "Everyone was talking on their phones, searching on their phones, and commerce that uses the internet to do their business was up and running," said Jeff Eassey, a manager for Digital Realty, who rode out the worst of Hurricane Irma hunkered with his staff in the Miami data center.
Retail landlords will begin hosting a number of season-specific activities and events, such as ice rinks, fire pits and tree-lighting ceremonies, with the goal of increasing foot traffic -- even though some activities reduce the space available for tenants. "You can still have a vibrant place even in the winter time," says Don Briggs, executive vice president of development at Federal Realty Investment Trust.
CoStar queried hundreds of commercial real estate professionals about where they believed Amazon's new headquarters will be located. The anecdotal consensus was that Austin and Dallas were the most likely markets, followed by Atlanta and Nashville.
Hubert Joly led a makeover of almost every part of Best Buy after taking the reins as CEO in 2012, and his efforts have paid off in higher sales. To compete with Amazon, the electronics retailer launched a price-matching plan, invested in customer service and shortened delivery times for online purchases by fulfilling orders from the closest location.
US housing starts dropped 0.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.18 million units in August, the second straight month the metric has dropped, the Commerce Department reports. However, building permits rose 5.7% to 1.30 million units.
