Thursday, July 28, 2011

Maddening Distribution Information

Does anyone else hate when non-traded REITs only present daily distribution data?  I just received an 8-K from Hines REIT with this frustrating disclosure:
These distributions will be calculated based on shareholders of record each day during the month of August 2011 in an amount equal to $0.00138082 per share, per day and will be paid in October 2011 in cash or reinvested in stock for those participating in Hines REIT's dividend reinvestment plan. Of the amount described above, $0.00041425 of the per share, per day dividend will be designated by the Company as a special distribution which will be a return of a portion of the shareholders’ invested capital  and, as such, will reduce their remaining investment in the Company. 
Please, if you want to state distributions in fractions of cents, add a summary that tells investors the annualized distribution rate and whether the rate has been dropped, increased or maintained from the previous period.  If the distribution rate changed, state the previous rate.  When I see a daily distribution rate with no perspective, I immediately think the REIT is obscuring bad news.   I'm too busy to check, did Hines REIT increase, decrease or maintain its distribution, at what distribution rate, and how much was the special distribution?

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