By Chibuike Oguh
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private equity firm KKR & Co (NYSE:KKR) Inc has blocked investors from cashing out of its $1.6 billion non-traded real estate income trust (REIT) after withdrawal requests exceeded pre-set limits, according to a regulatory filing.
KKR is the latest manager of private REITS to limit investor withdrawals following similar curbs at REITs managed by Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Inc and Starwood Capital.
KKR told investors of its KKR Real Estate Select Trust Inc this week that it received redemption requests greater than 5% of its quarterly net asset value as of the end of December.
As a result, KKR allowed investors to redeem just $79.3 million, which is equivalent to approximately 62% of the total investors' repurchase requests of about $128 million.
A KKR spokesperson declined to comment.
Investors are increasingly looking to cash out of private REITs amid a growing disparity in their returns and those generated by public REITS.
KKR reported that its REIT generated an 8.32% return as of the end of December compared with the publicly traded Dow Jones U.S. Select REIT Total Return Index, which fell 25.96% over the same period.
(This story has been corrected to change size of REIT to $1.6 billion from $1.5 billion in first paragraph)