Glenn Rufrano, CEO at VEREIT, Inc (NYSE: VER), joined REIT.com for a CEO Spotlight video interview at REITWeek 2016: NAREIT’s Investor Forum at the Waldorf Astoria New York.
VEREIT owns and manages a diversified portfolio of retail, restaurant, office and industrial real estate assets subject to long-term net leases.
In May, VEREIT doubled the size of its initial bond offering to $1 billion. Rufrano said actual demand for the offering totaled $5.5 billion.
“We satisfied our bond holders, and certainly satisfied ourselves, that we had access to the capital markets,” he said.
VEREIT is also making good progress toward obtaining investment grade metrics, according to Rufrano. He noted that the company has reduced debt by $2.6 billion, and its revolving line of credit is virtually undrawn.
“We have a little more to go, but we’re pleased with our progress,” he said.
Meanwhile, VEREIT has exceed its disposition targets, Rufrano pointed out. The company initially planned to sell $1.8 billion to $2.2 billion in assets by the end of 2016, but had already sold $1.7 billion by the end of the first quarter, at average cap rates of 6.8 percent, he said.
“Going forward this year, we don’t see a lot of headwinds…there’s plenty of equity capital out there, so we feel pretty good,” Rufrano noted.