Business Trust in India

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Business Trust in India is a new concept drawn on the lines of a similar concept prevalent in the Singaporean economy.

Contents

History

Historically, even in countries such as the United States and Singapore, it has taken significant time for REITs to pick up. [1]

Objective

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) aimed at attracting funds in a transparent manner into the real estate sector. [2]

Types

There are two types of Business Trusts which can be formed in India. [3]

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)

A REIT, structured as a real estate counterpart to mutual funds, allows small investors to invest in a diversified portfolio of rent-yielding realty assets. Specialist REITs like Alexandria and Prologis focused on healthcare research and industrial assets have come of age in the US. [4] The total estimated rental income potential of commercial Grade A stock in top eight Indian cities is 518 billion (US$6.5 billion) by 2019, according to global real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield. [5]

Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs)

InvITs are similar to the Real Estate Investment Trust; however, the InvITs invest in infrastructure like roads, bridges etc. On September 26, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) introduced the InvITs, and the SEBI acts as the regulatory body. [6] InvIT is a collective investment scheme that allows individuals and institutional investors to directly invest in infrastructural projects for a share of the annual distribution of dividends and interests. [7] The structure of InvITs includes a trustee, a sponsor, investment manager and project manager. [8]

SEBI guidelines

The guidelines, approved by its Sebi board, have kept the minimum requirement for asset sizes permitted to be listed in India at 5 billion (US$63 million). The minimum issue size of the initial public offer shouldn't be less than 2.50 billion (US$31 million). [9]

Taxation

As a benefit, any dividend would be tax exempt in the hands of the business trust and the dividend component of the income distributed by the business trust would also be exempt in the hands of unit holder. [10] Any interest received by business trust from SPV is taxable in hands of Unit holder with Normal Tax rate slab (as per Income Tax Act, 1961) and 5% in case of Non resident or foreign Companies.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dividend</span> Payment made by a corporation to its shareholders, usually as a distribution of profits

A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, it is able to pay a portion of the profit as a dividend to shareholders. Any amount not distributed is taken to be re-invested in the business. The current year profit as well as the retained earnings of previous years are available for distribution; a corporation is usually prohibited from paying a dividend out of its capital. Distribution to shareholders may be in cash or, if the corporation has a dividend reinvestment plan, the amount can be paid by the issue of further shares or by share repurchase. In some cases, the distribution may be of assets.

A real estate investment trust is a company that owns, and in most cases operates, income-producing real estate. REITs own many types of commercial real estate, including office and apartment buildings, warehouses, hospitals, shopping centers, hotels and commercial forests. Some REITs engage in financing real estate.

Negative gearing is a form of financial leverage whereby an investor borrows money to acquire an income-producing investment and the gross income generated by the investment is less than the cost of owning and managing the investment, including depreciation and interest charged on the loan. The investor may enter into a negatively geared investment expecting tax benefits or the capital gain on the investment after it is sold to exceed the accumulated losses of holding the investment. The investor would take into account the tax treatment of negative gearing, which may generate additional benefits to the investor in the form of tax benefits if the loss on a negatively geared investment is tax-deductible against the investor's other taxable income and if the capital gain on the sale is given a favourable tax treatment.

A royalty trust is a type of corporation, mostly in the United States or Canada, usually involved in oil and gas production or mining. However, unlike most corporations, its profits are not taxed at the corporate level provided a certain high percentage of profits are distributed to shareholders as dividends. The dividends are then taxed as personal income. This system, similar to real estate investment trusts, effectively avoids the double taxation of corporate income.

An investment trust is a form of investment fund found mostly in the United Kingdom and Japan. Investment trusts are constituted as public limited companies and are therefore closed ended since the fund managers cannot redeem or create shares.

An income trust is an investment that may hold equities, debt instruments, royalty interests or real properties. It is especially useful for financial requirements of institutional investors such as pension funds, and for investors such as retired individuals seeking yield. The main attraction of income trusts, in addition to certain tax preferences for some investors, is their stated goal of paying out consistent cash flows for investors, which is especially attractive when cash yields on bonds are low. Many investors are attracted by the fact that income trusts are not allowed to make forays into unrelated businesses; if a trust is in the oil and gas business, it cannot buy casinos or motion picture studios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public Storage</span> US international self storage company

Public Storage is an American international self storage company headquartered in Glendale, California, that is run as a real estate investment trust (REIT). It is the largest brand of self-storage services in the US. In 2008, it was the largest of four publicly traded storage REITs. There are more than 2,200 Public Storage self-storage locations in the US, Canada and Europe. It also owns 42 percent of an office parks subsidiary, sells packing supplies, and provides other services. As a REIT, it is owned by real estate investors, who receive more than 90 percent of the company's profits as a return-on-investment.

Return of capital (ROC) refers to principal payments back to "capital owners" that exceed the growth of a business or investment. It should not be confused with Rate of Return (ROR), which measures a gain or loss on an investment. It is essentially a return of some or all of the initial investment, which reduces the basis on that investment.

A real estate mortgage investment conduit (REMIC) is "an entity that holds a fixed pool of mortgages and issues multiple classes of interests in itself to investors" under U.S. Federal income tax law and is "treated like a partnership for Federal income tax purposes with its income passed through to its interest holders". REMICs are used for the pooling of mortgage loans and issuance of mortgage-backed securities and have been a key contributor to the success of the mortgage-backed securities market over the past several decades.

Taxable REIT subsidiaries (TRSs) allow real estate investment trusts (REITs) to more effectively compete with other real estate owners. They do this by providing services to tenants or third parties such as landscaping, cleaning, or concierge, and they provide new earnings growth opportunities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Real estate investing</span> Buying and selling real estate for profit

Real estate investing involves the purchase, management and sale or rental of real estate for profit. Someone who actively or passively invests in real estate is called a real estate entrepreneur or a real estate investor. Some investors actively develop, improve or renovate properties to make more money from them.

Realty Income Corporation is a real estate investment trust that invests in free-standing, single-tenant commercial properties in the United States, Spain and the United Kingdom that are subject to NNN Leases. The company is organized in Maryland with its headquarters in San Diego, California.

Leaseback, short for "sale-and-leaseback", is a financial transaction in which one sells an asset and leases it back for the long term; therefore, one continues to be able to use the asset but no longer owns it. The transaction is generally done for fixed assets, notably real estate, as well as for durable and capital goods such as airplanes and trains. The concept can also be applied by national governments to territorial assets; prior to the Falklands War, the government of the United Kingdom proposed a leaseback arrangement whereby the Falklands Islands would be transferred to Argentina, with a 99-year leaseback period, and a similar arrangement, also for 99 years, had been in place prior to the handover of Hong Kong to mainland China. Leaseback arrangements are usually employed because they confer financing, accounting or taxation benefits.

An Australian real estate investment trust (A-REIT) is a unitised portfolio of property assets, often listed on a stock exchange such as the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). Such investment structures were known as listed property trusts (LPT) in Australia until February 2008, but were renamed to be more consistent with international terms. Unit trusts of property assets which are not listed on a stock exchange are known as unlisted property trusts.

A Business Development Company ("BDC") is a form of unregistered closed-end investment company in the United States that invests in small and mid-sized businesses. This form of company was created by the US Congress in 1980 in the amendments to the Investment Company Act of 1940. Publicly filing firms may elect regulation as BDCs if they meet certain requirements of the Investment Company Act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CapitaLand</span> Singaporean real estate organisation

CapitaLand is a real estate investment and management firm headquartered in Singapore. The company holds properties in over 40 countries. It has a stable of six listed real estate investment trusts and business trusts, as well as about 30 private vehicles. It pioneered REITs in Singapore with the listing of CapitaLand Mall Trust in 2002, now merged with CapitaLand Commercial Trust to form CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prologis</span> American real estate company

Prologis, Inc. is a real estate investment trust headquartered in San Francisco, California that invests in logistics facilities. The company was formed through the merger of AMB Property Corporation and Prologis in June 2011, which made Prologis the largest industrial real estate company in the world. As of December 2022, the company owned 5,495 buildings comprising about 1.2 billion square feet in 19 countries across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. According to The Economist, its business strategy is focused on warehouses that are located close to huge urban areas where land is scarce. It serves about 6,600 tenants. Prologis began to expand its non-real estate business, Essentials, in 2022, offering customers solar power, racking systems, forklifts, generators, EV charging infrastructure, and other logistics tech equipment for purchase.

Real Assets is an investment asset class that covers investments in physical assets such as real estate, energy, and infrastructure. Real assets have an inherent physical worth. Real assets differ from financial assets in that financial assets get their value from a contractual right and are typically intangible.

India Grid Trust (IndiGrid) is an Indian power sector infrastructure investment trust (InvIT), sponsored by KKR & Sterlite Power (SPTL). Established on 21 October 2016, the entity is registered with SEBI pursuant to the InvIT regulations to own power transmission and renewable assets. Harsh Shah is the CEO and Director of IndiGrid and Jyoti Kumar Agarwal is the CFO.

References

  1. "Dividend distribution tax is stumbling block for REIT launch, says industry", Business Line , 8 January 2016
  2. "JLL seeks removal of dividend tax on REITs in Budget", Moneycontrol.com , 27 January 2016
  3. "Business Trusts: CBDT's new norms on income distribution to unit holders", Business Line , 22 January 2015
  4. "Edu infra investor to buy school chain assets", The Times of India , 1 February 2016
  5. "Mumbai may generate highest rental income for REITs: Cushman & Wakefield India MD", The Times of India , 21 January 2016
  6. "Definition of Infrastructure Investment Trust". The Economic Times . Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  7. Mehndiratta, Prerna (21 September 2020). "InvITs in India and way forward". Mint . Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  8. Singh, Sandeep (22 September 2020). "Explained:How NHAI plans to monetize its highways through InvITs'". The Indian Express . Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  9. Yadav, Renu (September 2014), "REITs enable small savers to invest in realty", Business Today
  10. "Tax exemption likely for business trusts", The Hindu , 6 August 2014