REITs Enjoy a Banner Day on Wall Street : Invest: New offerings raise close to $1 billion. The trusts are popular because they benefit from inflation.

Real estate investment trusts raised more than $1 billion in capital through equity offerings Friday in their biggest day on Wall Street since the end of last year, analysts said.

“It’s the most activity we’ve seen in one day since the last month of 1993,” said William Acheson, a REIT analyst at Natwest Securities. DeBartolo Realty Corp., Mills Corp. and Agree Realty raised a total of $947.25 million through initial public offerings. Camden Property Trust raised $72 million in a secondary deal.

Some of the new issues closed unchanged despite the flurry of trading activity.

DeBartolo, which was postponed late last year amid a flood of REIT deals, offered 38 million shares priced at $14.75 apiece in an offering underwritten by Morgan Stanley. DeBartolo closed unchanged from the offering price on New York Stock Exchange volume of 4.5 million shares.

It was the second most actively traded issue on the NYSE.

Real estate investment trusts, which are partnerships to invest in property developments, are one of the main vehicles for stock market investors to invest in the equities. Out of favor in recent years when real estate performed poorly, they began a recovery last year.

Merrill Lynch’s Mills Corp., which had filed for its initial public offering in early November, priced 17.6-million shares at $23.50. Mills also closed unchanged on the NYSE on volume of 3.8 million.

Agree Realty offered 2.5-million shares at $19.50 each in a deal run by Raymond James. It also closed unchanged.

Camden Property offered 3-million shares in a secondary offering, priced at $24 each. Camden rose 25 cents to close at $24.25 on the NYSE.

Camden was underwritten by Kidder. “I think there’s definitely an appetite for these particular (REIT) offerings,” said Chris Reich, an IPO analyst at MCM CorporateWatch.

Initial public offerings of REITs cooled down in December in a market that was swamped with such deals and was winding down for the holidays, analysts said. But they have returned to favor in recent months.

“The fact that these two (DeBartolo and Mills) got done this week amid the (deals) getting postponed says a lot for this sector,” he said.

Investor interest in the REIT deals has held steady because they are not interest-rate sensitive and instead work as capital preservation vehicles, Acheson said.

REITs offer a stable, growing cash flow and “inflation is not bad news for these guys,” Acheson said. A stronger economy translates into higher occupancy rates and better rent levels, he said.

Since Feb. 4, when the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 7.7%, while Acheson’s internal index of 50 REITs has climbed 1.2%, Acheson said.

REITs under Natwest research coverage have advanced 2.9%, he said.

However, Acheson said he does not expect another avalanche of REITs as in late 1993.