Topic: How To Invest

Q: Hi. What is your recommendation for Crombie REIT? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

A: Crombie Real Estate Investment Trust, $14.90, symbol CRR.UN on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 181.1 million; Market cap: $2.7 billion; www.crombie.ca), owns, operates, and develops real estate assets. The real estate investment trust, or REIT, has 304 properties made up of about 19.3 million square feet. Retail properties make up 79.6% of that square footage, followed by Retail-related industrial at 12.7%, Office, 5.0%, and Mixed-use residential, 2.7%. Crombie’s occupancy rate is a high 96.4%. Crombie’s properties span the country coast to coast with assets in most cities, towns, and metro centres. The REIT has 94 properties in Canada’s biggest metropolitan centres: Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa-Gatineau, Toronto, and Vancouver. It also has 68 properties in other major markets such as Halifax, Quebec City, Regina, Saskatoon, Victoria, and Winnipeg. The largest part of the REIT’s properties is in Atlantic Canada, at 7.6 million square feet. A further 7.6 million square feet are in Central Canada, and 6.3 million square feet in Western Canada. Crombie’s tenants are mostly…