China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) solicits public opinions on the pilot guidelines for the public raising of infrastructure securities investment funds, sparking a thousand waves. Whether it is in the public fund, securities asset management, legal or ABS field, real estate industry have triggered a wide range of discussions. As the main force to participate in the public REITs business in the future, many fund companies are not only actively looking for projects, but also recruiting and building business teams in the talent market. Public REITs are getting closer.

Several companies are recruiting publicly offered REITs

      In the asset management industry, talent is the core. In order to actively layout the REITs business, many fund companies have posted the recruitment information of public REITs talents on their official websites and some recruitment websites.

　　E fund on its website open recruitment REITs operating and REITs, head of the investment manager, which need to be responsible for establishing, head of REITs operating infrastructure and real estate project operation management framework, system and process, collaborative investment manager, to participate in the entire investment process, setting and implementation of project operation plan, improving operation efficiency and control operational risk, Collaborate with Investment Manager and other internal teams to develop investment and cooperation opportunities in infrastructure and real estate projects. At the same time, recently, China AMC has posted the post of REITs post-investment management and the post of public REITs product manager. Baoying Fund is also looking for the post of REITs asset securitization business and team leader. Haifutong Fund is recruiting the REITs team leader of public fund. Warburg also has a demand for analyst positions covering infrastructure REITs in China and abroad. Previously, on Liepin, there were also two fund companies that announced the recruitment of REITs business department heads and business personnel, and even offered an "olive branch" with an annual salary of one million, showing that many fund companies are "thirsty for money" for this kind of talent. In addition, according to the reporter of China Fund News, the current industry attention to the public REITs business is very high, but also in private to find the right talent. If this business is really launched in the future and gradually develops, the talent gap in the public offering industry is still high. "Public REITs are a brand new asset class for fund companies and are likely to determine the source of growth for the next five or 10 years. Large fund companies are equipped with scale effects and can afford higher labor costs. In recent years, they have been trying various innovations. In addition to setting up fund subsidiaries to participate in a number of new businesses, such as equity, some of them have set up internal investment banking departments. Therefore, it is a normal rhythm for large fund companies to recruit talent after the official introduction of public REITs to solicit opinions." A fund company public offering REITs business related people said. According to its understanding, the current fund company recruitment of public REITs business team to take a combination of internal and external mode. "Some of the large public funds were transferred to the parent company directly because the fund subsidiary teams were involved in such business before; Outside private real estate funds also have a lot of talent received the major fund companies to invite." However, several industry insiders said it was early days in the recruitment process and it was difficult to judge how easy it would be to build a business team. "In terms of market capacity, although there were many teams doing ABS and REITs in the past few years, they were still basically in the dimension of product design and release. There are fewer people who really understand assets, and even fewer people are limited to the infrastructure field. In terms of talent willingness, the fund subsidiary team itself belongs to the parent company, so there is nothing wrong with transferring to the parent company. External talents still have doubts about the future development of public REITs in China. Moreover, relevant personnel with more than five years of experience in China have a large space to choose from and may need to be carefully considered. But in general, as a new product, domestic REITs have a larger imagination space referring to overseas development, and high-quality talents with innovative ideas will be more willing to join." The above fund company public offering REITs business related people analysis.

      公募REITs项目筛选已经启动 在纷纷招聘人才的同时，公募REITs的项目筛选工作也在积极推进。一位业内人士透露，近期从卖方处了解到，目前公募REITs的项目筛选已经启动，大型公募基金也开始参与了，预计年底会有10至20个REITs基金会初步亮相，这些项目来自建筑、通信和交运等多个行业。行业内预期相关的REITs修订政策也会陆续在二三季度出台。一位基金公司产品部人士也表示，近期已了解到公募REITs的项目筛选已经启动，但最终的项目数量目前还不清楚。此前，基金业协会曾召开基础设施公募REITs座谈会，邀请华夏基金、嘉实基金、中金基金、泰康资产、中国人保资产、天津高和股权投资基金等13家行业机构代表、发改委投资司和证监会机构部、债券部相关处室负责人参加了会议。也有业内人士猜测，首批公募REITs产品或有望从上述机构中诞生。一位基金子公司高管反馈，近期所在基金公司也在积极关注公募REITs，不过手头并无资源储备，只能依靠股东方——证券公司寻找合适的项目，拟採取“股东方+公募基金+基金子公司”的集团作战模式推进公募REITs事宜。但他也表示，目前寻找收益率较高的项目有一定难度。

“近期接触到的很多基础设施类ABS，由于发行方均为大型国企，这类企业融资成本仅1.7%-1.8%，若是未来公募REITs收益率也是在这一区间，很难在普通投资者中推广。”

       “我们也在密切关注公募REITs产品，正在和股东方沟通积极寻找项目，但是暂时还没有较好的突破。目前各大公司都在寻找项目，但是优质项目数量并不多，还是考验基金公司的综合实力。”据一位基金公司高管表示。上述基金公司公募REITs业务相关人士表示，创新业务发展某种意义上确实会加快基金公司规模的发展速度，但也是一把双刃剑。

“公募REITs不属于此前公募基金的传统投资研究范围，新进入门槛太高，中小基金无论是在人才成本投入和相关资产的获取上都不具备相对优势，所以前期公募REITs应该还是大型基金公司以及少数具有资源优势的中小基金公司参与居多。” 诺德基金也分析指出，REITs扩展了公募基金的投资范围，目前公募产品只能投资标准化产品，市场上还未出现以ABS为主要投资标的的公募产品，REITs的出现弥补了这一缺憾，也为普通投资者通过公募产品进入非标领域提供了一种工具，虽然目前国内公募REITs还不允许参与商业化地产，但随著过程的推动，为将来商业化地产加入REITs大军奠定了基础。

      前景广阔仍存在一些难题 REITs被市场看为是万亿级市场，是公募基金行业未来一个规模和利润的新的增长点，然而，这过程还有些难题待攻克。诺德基金认为，从目前公募REITs的结构设计上，是明确投资项目资产的100%股权，将打破现在明股实债的格局，也是国家想要转型的方向之一，能否真实有效的落实贯彻下去，还需实际业务的检验。而优质项目筛选和如何解决流动性问题将是REITs面临的主要问题。

      一方面，按目前规定只能投资于基础建设，而基础建设项目每年的回报收益率偏低，按照海外市场经验，REITs的一般分红回报率在4%-6%之间，年化综合回报率在6%-14%之间，这种回报率的项目在国内基础建设方还是存在一定难度；

       另一方面，如何解决退出机制和交易流动性问题，否则需要基金公司自己寻找交易对手或者挂牌交易后缺乏流动性，将会是死水一潭，会极大制约REITs的发展。 “总体而言，在国内目前政策税收环境下能推出公募REITs已实属不易，就像养老FOF的推出，儘管目前还未和养老递延税相挂接，但始终是迈出了第一步，公募基金产品作为普通投资者进入金融或资本市场的主要工具之一，必将成为今后经济建设发展的重要投资工具。”诺德基金称。深圳一家基金公司权益投资部总经理也认为，目前REITs处于初级阶段，离大规模推行还要非常长的时间，因此短期带来的真实融资影响有限。

      公募基础设施REITs是国际上较为流行的权益工具，4月29日发布通知，只是标志著中国REITs的起点。但是，相关的项目评估标准、最为重要的税收中性政策都尚未有明确的规则，中国REITs的成熟要非常漫长才能达到美国市场的水平。 “国内比较有价值的REITs项目主要是市政，仓储物流和园区项目，原因是因为这些项目大部分槓杆较高，大部分背景是国企央企，REITs有助于这些企业降槓杆，符合当前国家政策导向。”

      上述人士表示，最好的项目应该是这些优先支持的行业裡面收益率较高的，但是未来实际操作中还是存在一些问题，比如地方政府的意愿问题等；传统基建项目能够进行REITs主要是公路、水电站和轨交等，由于这些项目多属于国家重要基础设施，具体的收费原则要兼顾民生和地方政府控制力，实际收益率偏低，因此做成REITs的吸引力可能偏弱。同时，上述人士还表示，REITs的底层资产要求非常高，尤其涉及到资产所有权必须满3年以上运营且有现金流，目前真正符合要求的非常少，不少机构也不太愿意将非常好的项目拿出来。 “资产如何定价、估值，所有权如何转移，税收如何处理，其中很多细节还没有明确。”该人士表示，公募REITs发展还需时日。