René-Ojas Woltering

École hôtelière de Lausanne

In this paper, we study the mean reversion behaviour of NAV spreads for a global sample of 219 listed real estate stocks. We find NAV spreads for companies trading at a high discount to mean revert fastest. Remarkably, we also provide evidence that online search attention impacts the mean reversion speed of NAV spreads: Stocks with lower levels of...

Over the past decades, numerous open-end real estate funds (OEREFs) in several countries became unable to maintain the liquidity provision and had to suspend the redemption of fund shares. This paper examines OEREF closures in Germany, the world’s largest OEREF market. We find that funds with a larger share of institutional investors had a higher c...

This article examines the conversion-related mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity and post-conversion performance of 80 international Real Estate Operating Companies (REOCs) that adopted Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) status. In the years prior to the conversion, we document an increased M&A deal activity that is in part driven to fulfill r...

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are a globally recognized form of real estate ownership that offer tax benefits at a corporate level. Despite their clear advantages, however, a significant share of potentially eligible Real Estate Operating Companies (REOCs) do not opt for conversion to a REIT structure. This paper examines 80 REOC-to-REIT co...

This paper examines the performance of real estate firms that issue seasoned equity with the stated purpose of investing in private market assets. Prior literature documents that (i) firms, in general, underperform following a season equity offering and (ii) growth firms underperform value firms. We propose a stylized model where firms may arbitrag...

In the published article “Is fund performance driven by flows into connected funds? spillover effects in the mutual fund industry” second author has incorrect affiliation. Affiliation was listed as “Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, 1000, Lausanne 25, Lausanne, Switzerland” where it should be “Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, HES-SO University of Applied Sc...

This paper analyzes the return sensitivities of real estate value and growth stocks to changes in five different interest rate proxies. Using a global sample of 352 listed real estate companies from 12 countries as a test object, we find that real estate value stocks are more sensitive than real estate growth stocks to changes in the short-term int...

Mutual funds are connected with each other through overlapping portfolio holdings. We document that the performance of individual mutual funds is affected by spillover effects from fund flows to connected mutual funds. Spillover-effects are particularly pronounced during crisis periods, when a one standard deviation increase in flows to the tercile...

This paper examines the discount to NAV in the context of distressed German open-end real estate funds. This is a unique setting to study NAV discounts because distressed real estate funds are forced to sell off their property portfolios and pay out the proceeds to investors. In contrast, the discount to NAV of closed-end funds or REITs can theoret...

This paper challenges the convexity of the flow-performance relationship, according to which investors strongly chase top-performing funds, while fund flows exhibit little to no sensitivity to past performance within the segment of poorly performing funds. Our results suggest that the flow-performance relationship is not convex, but rather linear....

Open-end Real Estate Funds (OEREFs) are the predominant type of securitized real estate investments Germany. This chapter explains the institutional and legal environment of this investment vehicle, which is designed to provide the risk-return benefits of private market real estate. We review the historical performance and portfolio composition of...

This paper examines the risk premium of value stocks within a global investment strategy framework. We test whether absolute or relative mispricing is better suited to capturing the global value premium by using fair value-based net asset values (NAVs) as our proxies for fundamental value. We find that investing in the most underpriced stocks relat...

Convexity in the flow-performance relationship of traditional asset class mutual funds is widely documented, however it cannot be assumed to hold for alternative asset classes. This paper addresses this shortcoming in the literature by examining the flow-performance relationship for real estate funds, specifically open-end, direct-property funds. T...

This article examines the trade-offs in launching new real estate funds, specifically open-end, direct-property funds. This investment vehicle, which is designed to provide the risk-return benefits of private market real estate, is available to retail investors in a number of countries. At the same time, these funds are also subject to liquidity ri...

In this paper we analyze the determinants of mutual fund initiation decisions. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to address this topic in a market outside of the United States. This perspective and data offer several advantages. First, Germany, unlike the Anglo-Saxon mutual fund industry, reflects a concentrated market with few industry lea...