REIT Bondholders Benefitting from Strong Corporate Governance, Fitch Ratings Finds

Most U.S. Equity REITs have strong corporate governance attributes that benefit bondholders, and they should ease their concerns about the impact of investor activism, according to a report from ratings agency Fitch Ratings, Inc.

Based on its review of 64 U.S. Equity REITs, Fitch concluded that “corporate governance is pretty strong for bondholders in the REIT space,” said Sean Pattap, a senior director at Fitch. “The positives outweigh the negatives,” he added.

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JP Morgan Analyst Discusses REIT Debt Levels, Investment Grade Ratings

Mark Streeter, managing director at JP Morgan Chase, joined REIT.com for a video interview during REITWise 2014: NAREIT’s Law, Accounting and Finance Conference held in Boca Raton, Fla.

Streeter was asked about appropriate debt levels for REITs and how the industry as a whole performs in this area. He noted that since the financial crisis, the REIT industry has been more focused on the metric of debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).

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