KC Business Journal - Realto Launches Platform to Trade Real Estate and Other Illiquid Assets

December 11, 2021

Overland Park-based Realto Securities LLC completed the first trades on its new electronic trading platform for real estate and alternative securities.

Realto is a FINRA-registered broker-dealer. Its platform brings more liquidity to the real estate market. Phase one is focused on late-stage real estate investment trusts (REITs), which is an estimated $65 billion to $80 billion market.

The first trades on the platform were for Class B restricted shares of Phillips Edison & Co. (Nasdaq: PECO), a Cincinnati-area commercial real estate firm that owns, operates and develops shopping centers. The company completed a $478 million IPO in July.

“The Realto team is excited to reach this milestone as we work to provide all investors with the daily liquidity opportunities and transparency that have not existed in the secondary trading of real estate and other illiquid securities,” the company stated in a release. “We are working hand in hand with institutions, asset managers, advisers and individuals to democratize trading of these assets and thank our investors and critical partners for their support in making Realto possible.”

Realto was co-founded by CEO Brian King, a former BATS Global Markets executive, and Jeff Kinney, a 26-year financial services veteran with experience raising equity capital for mutual fund companies like Invesco and Goldman Sachs.

Realto continues to work through the regulatory process to become an alternative trading system (ATS), which will allow Realto to offer broader secondary trading opportunities, such as additional order types and two-sided quotes. Realto expects to receive clearance from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate as an ATS sometime in January.

Lenexa-based BATS started out as an ATS and grew into one of the world’s largest stock markets. In 2017, CBOE Holdings Inc. acquired BATS for about $3.4 billion in cash and stock.

Article courtesy of the Kansas City Business Journal

James Dornbrook – Staff Writer, Kansas City Business Journal

LODAS Securities, LLC Member FINRA / SIPC - LODAS Securities, LLC is a wholly subsidiary of LODAS Markets, Inc.


The information provided herein does not constitute an offer to sell securities or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities, which can only be made by the applicable offering document filed and registered with the appropriate state and/or federal regulatory agencies and sold by broker dealers authorized to do so. There is no guarantee that a market will develop for some securities, and as a result, they may remain illiquid.

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