Baron Real Estate Income Fund

Equinix, Inc. (EQIX) is a network neutral operator of 260 data centers across 70 metro areas and 33 countries in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. It provides highly reliable facilities and offers low latency interconnection to and among business partners, networks, and cloud service providers.
Equinix benefits from several long-term secular trends, including increasing internet traffic, IT outsourcing, cloud computing, AI, and mobility. As data and customer needs become more global, Equinix should also be able to leverage its leading global data center platform. We believe Equinix can continue to grow through new data center development, rent increases, and the addition of value-added services supplemented by accretive acquisitions that increase market penetration and reach.

Welltower Inc. (WELL) is a $45 billion diversified health care owner and manager of senior housing, including assisted and independent living. Core to its strategy is to partner with top-tier operators and health systems while providing operators access to its proprietary data analytics platform.
We are optimistic about the prospects for Welltower given the substantial opportunity for cyclical recovery and continued secular growth in its senior housing business through occupancy and rent growth. The company also benefits from its proven ability to recycle capital at attractive rates of returns, premier health care platform, partnerships with top-tier operators, and well-respected management team focused solely on creating value on a per-share basis.

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (DLR) is a leading global provider of large-scale data center services to enterprises, cloud providers, and network operators. The company has 310 data centers in over 50 metro areas around the globe, with 51% of revenue in North America and the remainder in other regions worldwide.
Digital Realty enjoys strong growth prospects driven by cloud adoption, IT/data center outsourcing, and emerging AI applications. With a recurring revenue model, a sticky customer base with long-term leases, scale advantages, and a strong management team, we think Digital Realty is well positioned to take share. It offers a comprehensive suite of services through its acquisitions of Telx Group (network dense interconnection provider), Equicity (eight European assets), DuPont Fabros (U.S.-based wholesale operator), Ascenty (Brazil-based operator), and InterXion (Europe).

Vornado Realty Trust (VNO) is a $30 billion REIT that owns and operates a diversified portfolio of office and retail buildings, mostly in New York.
We believe Vornado is trading at a highly discounted valuation relative to its liquidation value. In addition, Vornado has several of sources of embedded value in its portfolio that we believe offer additional upside potential. These sources include the improvement in the NYC office portfolio as office workers return, the bottoming of the NYC retail portfolio, and the development of the Penn District. Management appears open to pursuing paths to simplify and improve shareholder returns.

Equity Residential (EQR) is the largest U.S. apartment REIT, with over 75,000 units and a portfolio valued at over $35 billion, focused largely on coastal markets such as New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Boston, and San Francisco.
Equity Residential is a blue-chip apartment REIT, with high-quality assets in markets with high barriers to entry, a proven management team, a state-of-the-art operating platform, and a strong balance sheet. Tenant demand for apartments remains strong, driven by low housing inventories and changing demographics. Following a period of decelerating rent growth driven by elevated new construction levels, we think Equity Residential should begin to see stabilizing rent growth.

The Macerich Company (MAC) is a REIT that owns a high-quality portfolio of mall properties, primarily in California, New York, and Arizona.
Macerich should benefit from favorable real estate fundamentals for high-quality, well-located retail properties, with tenant demand exceeding available space and generating rent growth. The recent appointment of a new CEO to lead Macerich through a multi-year business transformation should also help simplify the company’s portfolio, reduce debt, and improve growth prospects. We believe the stock is currently undervalued and a successful conversion will result in a higher valuation multiple over time.

Ventas, Inc. (VTR) is a REIT that owns a >$30 billion portfolio of 1,300 properties across senior housing, medical office, hospitals, and life sciences properties. 
We believe Ventas' well-located portfolio is poised to benefit from strong organic growth. In particular, we believe Ventas' senior housing properties are cyclically depressed due to COVID-19-related idiosyncratic reasons. We believe occupancy has bottomed and is primed to rebound substantially, as senior housing is a needs-based product with strong demographic forces around the forthcoming "silver wave" demand. In addition, construction activity in the sector remains subdued and should set up the company for favorable growth.

Brookfield Corporation (BN) is one of the world's largest alternative asset managers, with $1 trillion in AUM and more than $500 billion of fee-generating AUM. It owns stakes in several publicly listed affiliates as well as other unlisted investments. 
Brookfield Corporation's stake in listed companies, including Brookfield Infrastructure, Business Partners, Renewable Partners, and recently spun off Brookfield Asset Management, is worth $45/share. We see another $25/share in unlisted investments and $10/share in carried interest generated for a total of $80/share, well below the stock's current price. We think the company will profit from growth in alternative asset management, given its superior track record, highly respected CEO, global reach, scale, and diverse product offerings.

GDS Holdings Limited (GDS) is a market-leading Asia-based operator of data centers with over 100 data centers in Tier 1 markets in China with 1.5 gigawatts of capcaity. Additionally, GDS has 1 gigawatt of power capacity in Asia outside of China.
We believe that, as the preferred provider to Alibaba and Tencent, as well as other large global technology companies, GDS is poised to benefit from the explosive growth in cloud computing in China and abroad. Cloud adoption is still in the early stages in China, and GDS is capturing more than its fair share of incremental deployments due to its proven track record and carrier-neutral value proposition. Additionally, its first mover advantage in southeast Asia with recent lease signings from major US based global technology companies provide a major growth runway ahead.

Simon Property Group, Inc. (SPG) is the largest U.S. mall and outlet REIT, with a $90 billion portfolio consisting of malls (50%), outlets (40%) and international operations (10%).
Simon's size and balance sheet strength should ensure it will stay a dominant force in the U.S. mall business, where scale matters, and in the outlet business (50% market share). Simon has unparalleled access to a variety of capital sources and a distinct cost-of-capital advantage in raising debt and equity. In our opinion, the executive team, led by David Simon, is deep and talented. Simon continues to invest domestically and abroad. We believe the stock price is attractive, trading at a discounted valuation multiple.

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