RioCan completes key step

Article Excerpt

RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST $25 (Toronto symbol REI.UN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Units outstanding: 306.8 million; Market cap: $7.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 6.4; Dividend yield: 5.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.riocan.com) owns all or part of 250 shopping centres and other properties across Canada. They include 17 projects now under development. The trust continues to add residential and office units to cut its exposure to retail stores. As part of that plan, RioCan expected to have leased the units of its first rental development for midtown Toronto, eCentral, before the end of 2018. Those 466 apartments make up 20% the 2,300 rental units now in development as part of the REIT’s new RioCan Living portfolio. The trust launched RioCan Living in March 2018 to take advantage of the shortage of new apartment buildings in large Canadian cities. The goal is to expand RioCan Living to 5,000 rental units within the next five years. RioCan is a buy. buy…