Hibernia Reit admitted to leading real-estate index

Property investment company Hibernia REIT has been admitted to the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Global Real Estate Index Series, the most widely-used benchmark for listed real-estate in the world.

With around 400 stocks, the index represents over €1 trillion of prime property worldwide.

The Dublin-listed investment group will become a constituent of the Developed Europe sub-index as of Monday, September 24th. It is the only company added to the subset from the developed EMEA region this year.

“We believe this is an important step in broadening the universe of potential investors in the company and it demonstrates the changes brought about in the Irish property market through the introduction of the Irish REIT legislation in 2013,” said Kevin Nowlan of Hibernia Reit.

The total number of constituents in the European subindex, after theinclusion of Hibernia stands at 97; which represents a free-float market capitalisation of approximately €200 billion.

Shares in the group were up 2 per cent in early trading to €1.35 following the announcement.

Brokers also welcomed the move with Davy saying it was a positive milestone for Hibernia.

"It reflects the group's transition to a stabilised real estate operating company and should help to broaden its potential investor base," said Ray Crowley of Davy.

Goodbody said that while Hibernia's entry into the index had been much speculated upon in recent weeks, confirmation of entry was important as some investors previously precluded from purchasing stock would now have to consider it.

Hibernia, which recently announced plans to develop more than 120,000 sq ft of office space at Windmill Lane in Dublin's south docks as part of a joint venture with Starwood Capital, has invested or committed more than €600 million on acquisitions to date.