The Link REIT (Chinese: 領匯房地產投資信託基金, or 領匯;SEHK: 0823) is one of the world's largest REITs, or real estate investment trusts with assets of around US$3.3 billion. The world's largest REIT is Equity Office Properties Trust, with approximately $25 billion in assets. The REIT includes 180 properties, primarily shopping malls and carparks, formerly owned by the Hong Kong Housing Authority, a Hong Kong Government agency and was created to privatize the said properties.
IPO controversy
The Link REIT IPO was 18 times oversubscribed [1]. 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. The proposed flotation of the Link REIT by the Housing Authority was derailed when a public housing tenant, Lo Siu Lan, challenged the legality of the proposed divestment of the properties. She represented a concern among the many Hongkongers who live in public housing that existing amenities would no longer be public and that the Link REIT would raise prices without due consideration of the public good. Some NGOs also were concerned that the reduced income of the Housing Authority would eventually lead to rent rises for public tenants.
See also
- Champion REIT
- Securitization (see "government securitization")
- REIT
