Goodbye Fronsac REIT, hello Canadian Net REIT.
The Montreal-based trust rebranded Thursday to better reflect its current investment activities across Canada. Canadian Net REIT’s trading symbol on the TSX Venture exchange will also change from FRO.UN (FRO-UN-X) to NET.UN at some point during the week of June 22.
“We are proud to share with everyone our new name,” said president and CEO Jason Parravano in the announcement Thursday. “Fronsac has come a long way since its inception and we believe we reached a point where rebranding to Canadian Net REIT was the natural next step, as it is a name that better describes who we are and what we do.”
The new name is derived from the trust’s commercial real estate investments which are leased on a triple-net basis.
In an interview with RENX in the summer of 2020, Parravano talked about growing Fronsac from a small trust which owned 10 properties valued at about $20 million into an entity which, at that time, owned about $170 million in assets.
“We’ve been able to continue to find opportunities — market opportunities, off-market opportunities, development opportunities, joint venture opportunities,” he said.
Canadian Net REIT growth continues
During the past nine months, the acquisitions have continued as Canadian Net’s portfolio has grown to about $188 million in value, according to its Q1 2021 financial report.
It has steadily acquired properties which focus mainly on the fast food, convenience store, service station, grocery store and pharmacy chain retail segments.
Parravano called it a largely “pandemic-resistant” portfolio which has continued to perform well through the trials of the past 15 months. Its assets are located in Quebec, Ontario and Atlantic Canada.
Canadian Net REIT’s monthly distributions remain at $0.025 per unit, or $.30 per unit on an annual basis.
The trust’s new CUSIP number is 13639A109 and its transfer agent continues to be AST Financial. There is no change in the capitalization of the trust and no action is required by existing unitholders.
Investors holding unit certificates in the trust have the option to request a replacement certificate, but this is not required and updated certificates won’t automatically be issued.