ASIA
In China:
- Of note, industrial production levels rose to 6.9% y/y, returning to pre-pandemic levels.
- China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang criticized the sale as “severe interference in China’s internal affairs” that would “undermine China’s sovereignty and security interests.” He vowed retaliation including sanctions against the US companies involved.
In Japan:
- Output, new orders, and new export orders all registered smaller declines.
REIT Focus:
Bloomberg reported that Sun Hung Kai could miss its Hong Kong annual contracted sales target of HK$35 billion by at least 10% in fiscal 2021 ending June. Weak luxury home demand and a supply boom are expected to slow property transactions.
Europe
In Europe:
- There were fears Spain and Germany were losing control of the outbreak, while Italy, which was performing better than peers at the start of the autumn season, recorded huge spikes in daily cases.
- Mr. Sunak increased the government contributions to workers’ wages and reduced the hours that employees had to work to qualify for the scheme that will replace the existing furlough program on 1-Nov.
- Overcoming the impasse on fishing quotas is expected to result in the UK making concessions on level playing field and governance; both areas of discussion where there has been progress.
REIT Focus:
The retail sector has been one of the most impacted sectors by the global COVID-19 pandemic as the trend from bricks and mortar retail to digital retail (i.e. e-commerce) has been accelerated. Additionally, the restaurant and leisure industry has been negatively impacted as health and safety restrictions have limited the ability of many operators to reopen at capacity levels necessary to return to profitability. This week UK listed Shaftesbury Plc surprised the market with an equity offering whereby it conditionally issued 74.3 mn new shares at 400 pence/sh, a 20% discount to the prior day’s closing price and more than a 50% discount to its last reported EPRA NAV/sh of 878 pence/sh as of March 31, 2020 . Shaftesbury owns a prime £3.5 bn portfolio of retail (31%), food/beverage/leisure (38%), office (19%) and residential (12%) assets located in the heart of London’s West End. When it reported its half year results back in early June, it indicated that it had significant financial flexibility with a LTV as of March 31 of less than 27%. Given the continued uncertainties associated with the pandemic, the company elected to proceed with a capital raise to provide it with added financial flexibility. The capital raise is conditional, among other things, on shareholder approval at a general shareholder meeting that will be held on November 22nd. If approved, the company would raise £297 mn in gross proceeds.
North America
In the U.S.:
- Several experts, including Dr. Fouci, warned that the current trajectory of infections is alarming and needs to be contained quickly.
- The small downtick in claims did little to change the current theme of a slowing recovery.
REIT Focus
QTS Realy Trust, Inc. (QTS) announced the official opening of Atlanta-Metro DC2, 495K gross sf, mega data center on its Atlanta Metro campus that features 240K sf of data hall space and 72 megawatts of power capacity designed for large-scale enterprise colocation and hyperscale deployments. The new data center sits adjacent to the Company’s flagship Atlanta-Metro Data Center (DC1) on a 95+ acre site that now encompasses 200+ megawatts of utility capacity fed from two of the largest pre-positioned, data center owned substations in the country.
The views expressed in this update are as of the date of this blog entry. These views and any portfolio holdings discussed in the update are subject to change at any time based on market or other conditions. The adviser disclaims any duty to update these views, which may not be relied upon as investment advice. In addition, references to specific companies’ securities should not be regarded as investment recommendations or indicative of the Adelante products, strategies, or portfolios.