Our top REIT cuts its risk

Article Excerpt

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $27 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Units outstanding: 325.5 million; Market cap: $8.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 7.5; Dividend yield: 5.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.riocan. com) owns all or part of 301 shopping centres in Canada. That includes 15 now under development. Online shopping continues to hurt demand for retail space at RioCan’s malls. In response, it has begun to add office and residential units to its properties, particularly those in urban markets. For example, the trust has formed a 50/50 joint venture with Allied Properties REIT (Toronto sym bol AP.UN) to re-develop the King Portland Centre, in downtown Toronto. RioCan will manage the retail and residential portions, while Allied will handle the office component. The partners expect to complete this project in 2019. So far, they have already leased 75% of the building’s available office space. RioCan also continues to find new tenants for the 26 stores vacated by Target Canada in 2015. Since then,…