April 26, 2016: Investors and policymakers from South Korea meet with NAREIT staff members at NAREIT headquarters in Washington.
Delegations from China and South Korea visited NAREIT on April 26.
Representatives from Chinese investment firm E Fund Management Co, Ltd., which manages roughly $150 billion total assets, visited with senior NAREIT staff members about the development of REITs in China. Topics covered during the meeting included the forces that caused U.S. REITs to move from external management to internal management; why U.S. REITs originally were business trusts, but later primarily became corporations; and how REIT performance cycles relate to overall commercial real estate cycles.
Furthermore, as E Fund Management mulls investing in U.S. REITs, its representatives asked questions about the state of the U.S. real estate market.
The second group of visitors included representatives from the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s real estate industry division, which, among other things, oversees South Korean REITs. In addition, the delegation included representatives from Mirae Asset Investment Company. The discussion focused on lessons learned from the U.S. experience that can help grow South Korean REITs.
NAREIT’s participants in the meetings consisted of Cathy Barre, senior vice president for policy and politics; Tony Edwards, executive vice president and general counsel; Bonnie Gottlieb, senior vice president for industry and member affairs; Michael Grupe, executive vice president for research and investor outreach; Abby McCarthy, vice president for investment affairs and investor education; and Calvin Schnure, senior vice president for research and economic analysis.
(Contact: Bonnie Gottlieb at bgottlieb@nareit.com)