The listing of Italian property company Coima on the country’s MTA exchange on Friday, following a €215 mln IPO, may signal the stirrings of a renaissance in Italy’s small listed real estate sector, according to the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA).
‘EPRA welcomes this latest addition to the European listed real estate industry and the first Italian REIT IPO in over a decade,’ said EPRA’s CEO Philip Charls. The €215 mln secured by Coima, takes the total raised in European real estate IPOs in only three years past the €15 bn milestone.
Coima is structured as an Italian REIT or SIIQ (Società di Investimento Immobiliare Quotata).
Philip Charls added that for the past three years EPRA has been actively advocating an improved REIT regime in Italy, which would give investors access to the listed market of the fourth largest economy in Europe by GDP. Only 0.55% of Italy’s underlying real estate investment market is currently listed – the lowest percentage on the continent – compared with the European average, which stands at 4.90%.
EPRA believes Italy has strong growth potential. For example, since investor-friendly amendments to Spain's REIT regime in 2013, the Spanish market has added almost €6.0 bn in market capitalisation and increased its proportion of listed real estate to 3.88%.
Over 10%, or €15 bn, of the total €148 bn raised in all IPOs in Europe since 2013 was for property companies, while real estate’s share of the FTSE European Equities Index is only 3.2%. The total capital raised in IPOs and secondary offerings by European companies in the EPRA Index since 2013 was over €28 bn.
