South African REIT Selects BNY Mellon for ADR Offering

Growthpoint Properties, a South African Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), has launched an American Depositary Receipt (ADR) offering with BNY Mellon as its depositary bank.

The shares, which originally traded on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, will now be offered through the U.S. OTC market, with each ADR representing two ordinary shares.

Growthpoint became an REIT on July 1, making it the largest REIT in an emerging market.

“Now that the REIT status is in place, we want to leverage this status to enhance our ability to access capital, as we are a capital-intensive business. The REIT structure will put South Africa on the map as a choice for REIT investors and specifically REIT indices. Global REIT indices represent general trends in real estate equities worldwide, where real estate activities represent the ownership, disposal and development of income-producing real estate. It also allows small investors to obtain exposure to large commercial property,” says Estienne De Klerk, executive director of Growthpoint.

In addition to providing depositary services for Growthpoint, BNY Mellon was also recently selected as the depositary bank for Mexican airline Volaris.