By Paul Brent

Toronto-based Allied Properties REIT (AP.UN) just capped off a strong 2013 financial year and is not afraid to tell investors even better times are ahead. That positive message came out in a recent conference call Allied had with investors and analysts and the theme was picked up in an interview by the REIT’s president and CEO, Michael Emory (shown in image from the company website).

“It was a great year, a great quarter, and maybe even more importantly, we felt that we set a very good foundation for a very good year in 2014 and 2015,” Emory said, “to the extent that you can predict the future.”

What has changed?

After rates spiked and REITs stalled in May, the market for properties Allied is interested in have slowly and steadily recovered, meaning acquisition opportunities may be more abundant in the near term than initially expected.

Last year’s market retreat “led us to the preliminary conclusion that acquisitions may slow down. Not because we didn’t have a very favourable cost of equity and cost of debt, even after this event, but because we felt the vendors would lose some momentum and some readiness to sell,” Emory said.

“We did …read more

Source: RENX