Editor's note: This article is published monthly with current data as available.

Capital markets activity by US equity real estate investment trusts rose in September as the industry pulled in $2.20 billion for the month, more than triple the $702.3 million collected in August.

However, the amount of capital raised was down 48.5% from the $4.26 billion collected during September 2022, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. All the capital raised in September 2023 came from debt offerings.

American Tower gets more than half of capital

Communications-focused American Tower Corp. collected the largest amount of capital during the month, raising $1.50 billion after selling two sets of unsecured notes worth $750 million each with respective maturity dates of 2028 and 2033. The company intends to use the net proceeds to repay its existing debt under the 2021 multicurrency credit facility. The net proceeds might also be temporarily invested in short-term marketable securities.

Shopping center REIT Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. sold $350.0 million of unsecured notes due Oct. 15, 2028. Office-focused COPT Defense Properties sold $345.0 million of its 5.25% exchangeable senior notes due 2028.

– Set email alerts for future Data Dispatch articles. – Access a spreadsheet listing the offerings completed year to date in 2023 by publicly listed US equity real estate investment trusts. – For further capital offerings research, try the global real estate capital offerings activity template.

As of Sept. 30, the single-largest common equity issuance year to date came through Welltower Inc.'s at-the-market offering program. Through July, Welltower raised about $2.17 billion through its common stock at-the-market program. Communications-focused Uniti Group Inc.'s $2.60 billion offering, which wrapped up Feb. 2, remained the largest debt offering completed year to date.

At $7.01 billion, American Tower has raised the most capital year to date followed by industrial REIT Prologis Inc. at $5.37 billion.

Specialty sector collects the most capital offerings YTD

The offerings in September brought the year-to-date total to $44.30 billion, 7.7% higher than the capital raised during the first three quarters of 2022.

The specialty sector — including advertising, casino, communications, datacenter, energy infrastructure, farmland and timber real estate — accounted for the largest share of total capital raised thus far in 2023 with $15.97 billion. The industrial sector came in second at $7.07 billion, followed by the retail sector at $6.74 billion.