TORONTO—Citing increasing expenses and competitive pressures, shopping center owner RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust said Friday it was exploring its options for its US portfolio, including a possible sale. That's the case even as the company's second-quarter results show higher same-store earnings growth for its US properties than for its assets in Canada, where it's the largest REIT in that country.

RioCan has tapped Morgan Stanley and the Royal Bank of Canada for a strategic review of its US operations, which are concentrated mainly in Texas and the Northeast. Alternatives for RioCan's holdings in this country include, but are not limited to, continuing to operate and invest in the US portfolio, selling some or all of its properties in the US or forming a joint venture. Bloomberg Business reported Friday that the portfolio could be worth US$2 billion to $2.2 billion.

In announcing that it had launched a strategic review of options for its US portfolio, RioCan acknowledged that the portfolio has been “an important contributor” to the company's growth profile since it entered the US market in 2009. However, the US dollar's increasing strength against the Canadian dollar, as well as more competition from investors with low costs of capital, have led the company to reconsider.

“It's something we've been pondering and kicking around internally for a year after it became clear that we just couldn't keep acquiring the way we had been in the past in the US,” RioCan CEO Edward Sonshine said on the REIT's Q2 earnings call Friday. “We're not sure how we can grow. At the very minimum you have to go back to the beginning and say, 'What should we do with this?' ”