Does HFC REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) deserve its name?

 Just some few hours ago, my good friend, Avor David Mawutor ask this question on my facebook page that got us all thinking and asking follow up questions. 

“Does HFC REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) deserve its name? Check out the percentage of their funds that is actually invested in real estate.”

Responses from the young Investors:

  Quophi Boamah Lolz not at all! Hahaha..

·          Patrick Edem Agama Hmmm. Guess they just want to receive the special tax considerations that REITs enjoy on real estate deals. Don't mind them.

19 hrs · Like · 1

·         Boakye Ogyem Yep. I think Pat will be right because personally am shocked at what am seeing.

17 hrs · Like · 1

·          Benjamin Kofi Nyarko Funny though, but wikipedia also considers land as real estate.

17 hrs · Like

·          Boakye Ogyem is anyone owning REITs from HFC? Then he can ask mgt about their strategy and why that name

17 hrs · Unlike · 2

·          Avor David Mawutor Patrick: Are REITs in Ghana entitled to special tax considerations? Or you are just guessing? Benjamin: Even if land is considered part, 21.03% is woefully inadequate! The fund is supposed to invest predominantly in real estate to merit the name - REIT. Boakye: I don't own any units in it. But a friend and I were discussing why their returns are usually just slightly above T'bill rates and I decided to check their annual report. Looking at the summary above, I think I now understand. Their investment portfolio looks like that of a money market fund.

16 hrs · Unlike · 3

·          Quophi Boamah @benjamin Kofi Nyarko yhh land is real estate, at least that makes sense but u see the percentage invested in real estate.. So small compared to the one in fixed income securities.. Lol this shd be a debt investment fund or something

16 hrs · Like · 1

·          Quophi Boamah Yahh Avor David Mawutor

16 hrs · Like · 1

·          Quophi Boamah Excuse me please... who trades our sovereign bonds?? Or do u know anyone who trades it? Or are u well informed on it?

16 hrs · Like

·          Kwabena Amo-Mensah Iol.. May be regulation does not allow them to allocate more than a certain percentage of funds in real estate. Currently, unit trust cannot invest more than 10% in real estate. But does SEC have regulations on REITs?

16 hrs · Unlike · 2

·          Benjamin Kofi Nyarko @ Avor David Mawutor, hmm.... interesting, but i would be comfortable if we can look at their financials for 2012 and 2011. also having a details of the bonds they invested in wouldn't be a bad idea. 
Just for laughs , maybe they are holding bonds of real estate companies.

15 hrs · Unlike · 3

·          Quophi Boamah Lmao.. Yeahh true Benjamin you are right! And Kwabena Amo-Mensah yeah all mutual funds get regulated on the percentages they can at most invest in a vehicle so that they dont give fake publicity about the aim of their fund.. But probably these HFC being experts in this industry wont break any rules i think, so am sure they are utilising their regulated minimum they can invest in real estate which might be 20% and going more into fixed income securities as a strategy that i would have done if i had a fund like that because based on some analysis i have, i see Ghana's inflation rate falling from this 17% to about 15% at the end of this year and fixed income would made them win on value and PP compared to real estate that would see falling prices..15 hrs · Edited · Like · 1

·          

·          Patrick Edem Agama Avor David Mawutor, i know REITs in most countries receive tax considerations for the sake of it being a collective scheme, and investing in real estate . Not sure for Ghana. With respect to HFC REIT, unless the laws have been changed, the SEC industry law does not permit collective schemes to invest more than 10% of the fund in real estate. Quite absurd huh?? " The Securities Industry Law allows mutual funds to invest only 10% of their net income value in real-estate. “There is a restriction on how much a unit trust can invest in real-estate. The draft or new law seeks to remove that restriction,” Mr. Anane Antwi said in an article I read, dated 2012. So guys hold your fire, let's read more and find out why.

·         14 hrs · Unlike · 5