All Real Assets articles in December 2006 (Online)

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  • News

    Italian REITs ‘set for slow start’ – Merrill

    2006-12-18T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE - Merrill Lynch last week gave a warm response to the Italian government’s decision to introduce REITs in July 2007, although it hinted that the REITs market would have a slower start than the UK and Germany. In a research note ...

  • News

    German Upper House wants housing REITS

    2006-12-18T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE – The Bundesrat, the Upper House of the German parliament, has opposed excluding municipal housing from German REITs, which are to be introduced next year. The representatives of the German provinces argued that an exclusion of ...

  • News

    MEPs’ fund goes into real estate

    2006-12-18T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE - The €190m (£127.85m) Members of European Parliament Pension Fund is moving away from bonds in favour of euro-zone property to increase the diversification within its portfolio. The news was first announced in a press relea...

  • News

    LA mulls new real estate investments

    2006-12-18T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE - The Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System will be looking at investing in the MacFarlane Urban Real Estate Fund II and Buchanan Fund V. The move came at its investment committee meeting on December 4. These investment...

  • News

    Germany’s NAEV ups real estate exposure

    2006-12-18T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE – Germany’s NAEV, a €7.75bn medical pension fund, will expand investments in real estate investment trusts (REITs) and other real estate securities over the next three years, says Hermann Aukamp, NAEV’s director of...

  • News

    Land Securities converts to REIT

    2006-12-18T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE - Land Securities has confirmed that it is to convert into a Real Estate Investment Trust on January 1 next year following its Extraordinary General Meeting. It said 99.1% of shareholders backed the decision. The conversion will result...

  • News

    Schroders buys German real estate manager

    2006-12-18T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE - Schroders says it has agreed to buy German real estate asset manager Aareal Asset Management GmbH for an initial £18.8m (€28m) from Aareal Bank. Wiesbaden-based AAM has €1.9bn in assets under management and manages s...

  • News

    US schemes back international REITs

    2006-12-18T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE - More US pension funds based are looking at placing capital into international REITs. Two of the most recent examples of this are State Universities Retirement System of Illinois and the Orange County Employees Retirement System....

  • News

    VastNed acquires properties Madrid properties

    2006-12-18T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE - Retail real estate fund VastNed has acquired two properties in a top location in Madrid, it announced. In a €10m transaction, VastNed purchased shop-premises of 256m2 and 120m2 respectively in the Calle de Fuencarral, a shoppin...

  • News

    Massachusetts PRIM allocates extra $300m

    2006-12-18T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE - The Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board has set aside $300m for a value-added strategy through one of its separate account real estate managers. Mass PRIM has Lou Canlas as senior investment officer for real es...

  • News

    Eurocastle acquires €2.1bn Deutsche portfolio

    2006-12-18T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE - Eurocastle, the offshore real estate investment vehicle of US private equity firm Fortress, has acquired a 61-property German portfolio from DB Real Estate for €2.1bn. The firm will fund the deal via a combination of the procee...

  • News

    German insurer Gerling in residential sell-off

    2006-12-11T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE – German life insurance group HDI Gerling has sold more than 2,600 residential units to Patrizia Immobilien for around €300m. Patrizia said it bought the portfolio – comprising 2,737 residential and commercial units &...

  • News

    Institutions must embed SRI for real estate – UN

    2006-12-11T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE – The United Nations has called for real estate investors to consider the environment when they make portfolio decisions. The UN’s Environment Programme Finance Initiative has launched a working group on responsible propert...

  • News

    LA County fund to look at international

    2006-12-11T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE - The Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association will be looking at making some international real estate investments over the next 12 months. Its Principal Investment Officer for Real Estate John McClelland said, "We wi...

  • News

    Sharia’a compliant real estate fund launched

    2006-12-11T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE – A new Sharia’a-compliant real estate fund has been launched by the European Islamic Investment Bank. Knight Frank Investment Management will source real estate deals on behalf of the EIIB Pan-European Islamic Real Estate...

  • News

    CalPERS finalises office building venture

    2006-12-11T00:00:00Z

    REAL STATE - The California Public Employees Retirement System has finalised plans for a new office building investment partnership. It’s called Fifth Street Properties II, LLC. The venture has a total of $2bn of capital available to invest...

  • News

    New real estate investment bank launched

    2006-12-11T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE – A new real estate investment bank has been launched by former executives at HSBC and Jones Lang Lasalle. "We announce the establishment of Lowndes Partners, LLP an independent investment bank specialising in financial adv...

  • News

    ABP scales down stake in real estate group

    2006-12-11T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE - The €201bn civil service pension fund ABP has decreased its majority stake in real estate group Vesteda to 46.7%, Vesteda said. During five transactions, ABP has sold 13.4% of equity, worth €450m in total. The amount was ...

  • News

    Belgium in €500m real estate sell-off

    2006-12-11T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE – The Belgian federal state is selling off government property, among which some historic buildings, to balance this year’s budget showing a €500m gap. In a notice of sale the Belgian Federal State today announced tha...

  • News

    CalSTRS commits $100m to emerging manager fund

    2006-12-11T00:00:00Z

    REAL ESTATE - The California State Teachers Retirement System has made a $100mn commitment to the Scout Fund that is being managed by Hawkeye Partners. This commingled fund will look to sign up between six to eight emerging managers for the fund....