SCPI
The SCPI offering from HSBC Private Bank France
HSBC Private Bank France, in collaboration with HSBC REIM (France), a management company approved by the AMF and an HSBC Group subsidiary dedicated to real estate management on behalf of third parties, provides its clients with comprehensive expertise in real estate asset management through a diversified SCPI offering.
As at 31 December 2008, assets under management at HSBC REIM (France) reached to EUR 640 million, spread across 129 properties.
Within its HSBC REIM (France) subsidiary, HSBC provides the skills of a multidisciplinary team, exploiting the know-how and experience of real estate specialists in resolving every question.
A real estate investment company (société civile de placements immobilier, SCPI) is an investment company authorised to issue units to the general public and whose sole purpose is the purchase and management of a property portfolio.
An SCPI thus enables any private investor to buy units in a diversified portfolio of real estate assets.
There are two legal types of SCPI:
| - Fixed-capital SCPIs for which capital increases are decided by the management company. Outside these capital increase periods, subscriptions are closed and units are available only on the secondary market;
- Variable-capital SCPIs equipped with "minimum" capital provided under the articles of incorporation and for which there is no secondary market.
|
|
An SCPI is managed by a management company approved by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) and designated by the articles of incorporation or a unitholders’ general meeting and tasked with:
| - collecting capital by general subscription
- buying properties and finding tenants
- carrying out the necessary works
- occasionally, selling properties
- managing properties
- distributing income to unitholders
- informing the general public of transactions conducted by the SCPI
|
|
What are the benefits of the SCPI? |
| - Ease of access to the corporate real estate market (offices, warehouses, etc.) with modest outlays (flexibility of investing in units compared with direct investment in a property)
- Diversification and distribution of risks (property types, geographical locations, tenants)
- Stability of tenants (three-, six- or nine-year commercial leases)
- No need to worry about management (handled by the management company)
- Regular income
- No notarised deeds
- Liquidity because of an organised secondary market in the units
|
|
An SCPI is subject to the regime of tax transparency and is not liable for corporation tax. Each unitholder will be liable, depending on his tax situation, for income tax (physical person) or corporation tax (legal entity) in respect of his rights in the SCPI.
Taxation of income from SCPI units applies to:
| - property income from the net property result
- financial income from placing cash held by SCPIs
|
|
Taxation of capital gains applies to:
| - real estate capital gains when the SCPI resells properties
- real estate capital gains when the SCPI resells units
|
|
No registration fee is payable when units are issued for subscription (primary market). But this is not the case when buying on the secondary market, when the buyer is liable for the registration fee.
| - Fixed-capital SCPIs
The reselling market is organised by the management company by matching buy and sell orders at regular intervals, centralised in a register, making it possible to determine an execution price at which units are exchanged.
- Variable-capital SCPIs
Units are sold by cancelling and then reissuing them. The SCPI reimburses the units only if it has a compensating subscription for the sale.
|
|
