...Leadership Influence on Credit: Senior leadership is an important qualitative factor in an issuer's credit ratings. Fitch Ratings considers management's financial discipline, strategy and experience, ability to balance the sometimes opposing interests of various constituencies and willingness and track record of issuing equity. Therefore, the number of noteworthy recent changes of CEOs in the U.S. equity REIT sector has been a notable topic of interest. Low Relative CEO Turnover: Of 166 REITs examined by Fitch, 25 companies have changed CEOs or announced pending changes in the CEO suite from Jan. 1, 2013 to the present. However, REIT turnover has been low relative to corporates generally. From 2013¡2014, CEO turnover occurred at approximately 7.5% of REITs on average annually, compared to the S&P 500 annual average of approximately 11.0%. Mixed Circumstances of Succession: There have been two types of REIT CEO changes: the predecessor CEO stepped down or retired while the company simultaneously...
