6 REITs in the 2015 IPO Frenzy

REITs have been all about the New York Stock Exchange this year—six have gone public since the first of the year, double the same period in 2014. Public REITs have been money-making machines, raising $40B in equity and debt in the public capital markets in the first half of 2015, up from $35B in the first half of last year. $1.4B alone came from the six IPOs. Read on for more info on these newly public REITs.

1. InfraREIT

IPO Date: Jan. 29
Location: Dallas, TX
Asset of Choice: Railroad/transmission and distribution facilities
Money Raised: InfraREIT was priced at $23/share (already above initial estimates), and expected to raise $483M. Instead, it closed at $26.60/share, or $529M and a $1.2B market cap.
History: InfraREIT was founded by Ray Hunt, an energy billionaire who also owns The Hunt Cos, a real estate developer. InfraREIT began in the late ‘90s as Sharyland, the first investor-owned utility company since the ‘60s. It became a REIT in 2010.
Future: Hunt has made a bid to purchase Oncor, the largest electricity provider in Texas. It’d be a huge boost to InfraREIT’s portfolio of power lines—InfraREIT owns 11,000 while Oncor has 119,000.

2. Easterly Government Properties

IPO Date: Feb. 6
Location: Washington, DC
Asset of Choice: 2.1M SF of Class-A office, primarily leased to the government.
Money Raised: $207M at $15/share
Execs: Most have government experience, including EVP Joe Moravec (he was commissioner to the GSA’s Public Buildings Service from ’01 to ’05).
Surprise: Only one of its 29 buildings is in DC.
Photo: EVP/vice chairman of the board Michael Ibe, CEO Bill Trimble and chairman of the board Darrell Crate ring the NYSE opening bell on Feb. 6.

3. Great Ajax Corp

IPO Date: Feb. 13
Location: Beaverton, OR
Asset of Choice: Mortgages
Money Raised: $81M with shares going for $14.25 each
Other Investments: It occasionally buys single-family homes through REO, and also invests in multifamily and smaller mixed-use properties.

4. Jernigan Capital

IPO Date: March 26
Location: Miami, FL
Asset of Choice: Financing to self-storage
Money Raised: $115M at $20/share
All Alone: Jernigan is the only direct lender to self-storage that focuses exclusively on the sector.
History: Founder Dean Jernigan (pictured) formerly was CEO of CubeSmart and Storage USA.

5. National Storage Affiliates Trust

IPO Date: April 22
Location: Greenwood Village, CO
Asset of Choice: Self-storage
Money Raised: $260M at $13/share, $40M short of initial pricing estimates.
What Happened? Analysts think NSA’s complicated structure and lack of consistent national branding (it operates under different flags in different regions) hurt it some in the public markets. On the flip side, above-average yields are a draw.
Portfolio: The sixth-largest owner/operator of self-storage properties in the US, it has 246 assets totaling 14M SF in 16 states.

6. Community Healthcare Trust

IPO Date: May 21
Location: Franklin, TN
Asset of Choice: Non-urban healthcare—the firm says it’s looking for smaller ancillary properties that are important to providing healthcare to a stable or growing population base.
Money Raised: $128M
Future: The firm had already committed to pay $115M to buy 35 properties in 18 states.