(Yicai Global) Dec. 27 -- Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has become the first privately owned company in the country to be given the greenlight by regulators to issue an infrastructure Real Estate Investment Trust backed by its own logistics warehouses that will trade on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The REIT, which refers to the conversion of infrastructure assets with stable returns into equity-based financial products, will issue 500 million shares priced between CNY3.24 (USD0.46) and CNY3.73, the Shanghai bourse said today. The exact subscription price will be determined depending on pricing inquiries. The fund manager is Harvest Fund Management.

The underlying assets are three logistics parks located in Wuhan in central Hubei province, Langfang in northern Hebei province and the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, the bourse said. Together they have a floorage area of 350,995 square meters. The occupancy rate is 100 percent and the average leasing period is for five years, higher than the industry average of three years.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange has always encouraged private firms to take part in REITs since they were introduced in 2020 so as to form a supportive cycle of existing assets and newly-added investments, Liu Ti, deputy general manager of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, recently told Xinhua News Agency.

And it will continue to make more efforts to facilitate private firm’s issuance of REITs to send out the signal that the capital market supports the private economy, he added.

Twenty-four infrastructure REITs have gone public in China so far, raising more than CNY78 billion (USD11.2 billion).

Editor: Kim Taylor