TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of private placement announcements by Australian Real Estate Investment Trusts (A-REITs) on existing shareholders. The study examines 96 A-REIT private placements from January 2000 to December 2012. Design/methodology/approach– Utilising event study methodology the authors examine the impact on existing shareholders wealth by measuring the abnormal returns (AR) around the placement announcement. The authors extend the analysis to model the A-REITs ARs against a number of explanatory variables to investigate the possible drivers for the observed event study results. Findings– The results support the information signalling hypothesis, in that existing investors in A-REITs earn negative and significant cumulative ARs of −1.3 per cent over the three-day event window [−1, +1]. This result is in contrast to prior studies conducted on industrial firms, for example; Hertzel and Smith (1993), Krishnamurthy et al. (2005) and Wruck and Wu (2009). Practical implications– Regression analysis shows A-REITs trading at a premium to net tangible assets and A-REITs that use placement funds for their core business have a positive impact on announcement ARs. Originality/value– This paper adds to the existing literature surrounding private placements and is the first paper, to the authors’ knowledge, to examine the impact of Australian REITs. VL - 32 IS - 6 SN - 1463-578X DO - 10.1108/JPIF-05-2014-0031 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/JPIF-05-2014-0031 AU - Ratcliffe Christopher AU - Dimovski Bill PY - 2014 Y1 - 2014/01/01 TI - Market discounts and shareholder benefits : Evidence from Australian REIT private placements T2 - Journal of Property Investment & Finance PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 570 EP - 588 Y2 - 2024/04/16 ER -