Mall, office REITs drop as new COVID-19 variant rattles

Seritage Growth Properties

26/11/2021 15:05

** Shares of mall and shopping center operators and other
commercial real estate firms, which were hammered by pandemic
lockdowns, fall on Fri as potentially vaccine-resistant
coronavirus variant spooks markets  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2SH089
    ** Little is known of the variant, detected in South Africa,
Botswana and Hong Kong, but scientists warn it may be able to
evade immune responses and could be more transmissible
    ** Mall REITs Simon Property  SPG.N  down 4.8%, Kimco Realty
 KIM.N  down 4.7% and Macerich  MAC.N  off 5.9%, while shopping
center operator Federal Realty  FRT.N  down 4.1%
    ** Other retail REITs EPR Properties  EPR.N , Seritage
Growth Properties  SRG.N  and Tanger Factory Outlet Centers
 SKT.N  all down about 6%
    ** Office REITs Boston Properties Inc  BXP.N , Vornado
Realty Trust  VNO.N  and SL Green Realty Corp  SLG.N  off about
4%-6%
    ** Shares of office sharing firm WeWork  WE.N  down 3.9%
    ** S&P 500 Real Estate index  .SPLRCR  down 1.5% on Fri,
trimming YTD gain to ~33%. This compares to S&P 500's  .SPX 
~23% advance in 2021, including its nearly 2% decline on the
session
    ** SPLRCR has roughly doubled from its Mar 2020
pandemic-induced lows

 (Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed
are his own)
 ((lance.tupper@thomsonreuters.com
lance.tupper@tr.com 1-332-219-1430))