Corporate Finance Attorney Discusses Cold REIT IPO Market

C. Spencer Johnson, corporate, finance, and investments partner at King & Spalding LLP, participated in a video interview at Nareit’s REITwise: 2019 Law, Accounting & Finance Conference in San Antonio.

Johnson discussed REIT valuations as an indicator of potential mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and the environment for privatizations. He also talked about factors that may drive potential initial public offering (IPO) activity in 2019, although he noted the REIT IPO market has more than “gone cold.”

“As long as there’s this steady flow of capital in the private markets, it’s going to be really difficult to get companies to go public, unless the economics are really just out of this world,” Johnson said.