Time: 14:30-16:30, April 17^th , 2015
Venue: Room 1620, Houzhulou Building, BNU
Host: Prof. He Liping
Presenter: Prof. Massimo Biasin, Department of Economics and Law, University of Macerata, Italy

Bio. of Prof. Massimo Biasin[1]
Professor Biasin teaches banking and commercial real estate finance and investments at the University of Macerata (Italy). He is also visiting professor in real estate at the Catholic University of Milan (Italy). His academic and professional publications include articles on financial intermediaries’ structure, publicly traded real estate investment trusts, and their performance evaluation upon capital structure. He has provided research and consulting services to several asset management companies and banks. Professor Biasin is Fellow of the Weimer School of Advanced Studies in Real Estate/Homer Hoyt Institut (US), a non-profit research and educational institute in real estate. He serves as referee of domestic and international scholarly journals.

Abstract
Italian Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are closed-end legal entities structured in the form of investment funds with finite life, externally managed by a management company. Retail REITs, consistently with the European Union investment directives, are subject to prudential and tax regulation aimed, respectively, to protect and favour retail investors. Market evidence shows that public REITs typically trade at (deep) discount on NAV figures.

The intermediation model has severe agency implications. In that context, REIT managers’ compensation structure and the design of proper remuneration schemes plays a critical role in addressing potential opportunistic behaviors of  managers, in driving investment decisions and, in turn, share performance, and in aligning the different interests.

The seminar offers an overview of the Italian REIT market and highlights the main critical issues embedded in the REIT intermediation structure which is common to other European countries.