Cole Continues to Climb

Cole Capital, a sponsor of non-traded real estate invest programs, continues its ascent to recovery from the turmoil caused by American Realty Capital Corporation’s (ARCP) accounting fiasco from late 2014. ARCP completed its acquisition of Cole Capital in early 2014.

Major clearing firms such as Fidelity, Pershing, TD Ameritrade, and Charles Schwab have resumed processing trades of Cole sponsored REITs on behalf of independent broker-dealers (IBDs).

Cole has secured selling agreements with 201 IBDs and Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) that represent a selling group which raised about 42 percent of the sponsor’s 2014 gross capital inflows, excluding Distribution Reinvestment Plans (DRIPs) and redemptions.

During Q1, Cole raised $61.9 million of equity capital across four publicly registered, non-traded REITs, including $32.1 million from the REITs’ DRIP option. This compares to $461.2 million and $8.3 million during Q1 2014.

Across Cole’s managed REITs, 79 properties were purchased for an aggregate investment of $225.8 million.

Cole also delivered for existing investors with its fourth liquidity event in two years. Cole Corporate Income Trust, Inc. (CCIT) merged into a subsidiary of Select Income REIT on January 29, 2015 providing CCIT stockholders a cash consideration of $10.70 gross per share or $10.50 net per share (net of incentive fees and transaction-related expenses for CCIT).

In April, the capital raise picked up significantly in comparison to total Q1 results. Cole raised $30.1 million of equity capital across its managed REITs, including $11.1 million through DRIPs.