CIM Group Considering Going Public in Next Several Years

The colossal CIM Group could become a publicly traded company, though it will take several years to know.

The Los Angeles-based real estate firm is combining its assets and investments with its public, nontraded real estate investment trust, Bisnow reported. The firm has already taken a 67.5 percent share of the entity, CIM Real Estate Finance Trust. Existing shareholders of the REIT hold the rest of the trust.

The combined company, CIM Group Inc., will not be treated as an REIT going forward. It will, however, continue its vertical operation as developer, owner and lender of its properties.

The structuring of the company is expected to enhance its ability to deploy capital and dabble deeper into mergers and acquisitions. Focus areas will include real estate, credit, infrastructure, opportunity zones and strategic operations.

“We are creating a real assets manager with greater scale, stronger alignment, enhanced resources, and a commitment to long-term value creation, while preserving continuity across our leadership team, investment professionals, and operations,” CIM CEO Richard Ressler said in a statement.

All of the movement could feed into an eventual public listing, as CIM is merging all of its operations into the nontraded REIT and taking over its ticker and filing obligations. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission this month, CIM said it would pursue a common stock listing in the next two to five years. If it doesn’t happen in that timeframe, investors can push for a portfolio sale.

The efforts have the unanimous support of CIM’s board of directors, as well as a special committee.

As of the end of the first quarter, the CIM Group REIT boosted $4.7 billion in assets across nearly 200 properties, largely retail with a few industrial and office buildings mixed in. The broader CIM Group has $32 billion in owned and managed assets on the books.

This month, CIM Group listed its 179,000-square-foot office complex at 330 and 340 Townsend Street in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood, which it acquired for $30 million in 2013.

— Holden Walter-Warner