ASIA - ING Real Estate Investment Management has taken over as general partner (GP) at an Asian real estate fund for the second time in 12 months.

ING REIM has assumed the management of Creed Real Estate Partners, a value-added fund focusing on office, residential and retail assets in Japan.

In April 2009, the Netherlands-based global fund manager took over as GP on the New City Asia Opportunity Fund.

The Creed vehicle, renamed Nozomi Real Estate Fund, is a closed-ended private equity-style fund with $1.1bn (€824m) of assets under management.

It was Japanese fund manager Creed's flagship vehicle, which attracted investments from pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and financial institutions in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

The MM Asian Real Estate Fund (MM AREF) - a fund-of -funds vehicle - has TKP Investments, the multi-manager subsidiary of Dutch pension fund TKP, as one of the investors in the fund.

According to MM AREF's 2008 annual report, Creed Real Estate Partners delivered a negative return of -19.2% in 2008 and at that point had a loan-to-value ratio of 77.5%.

"We are delighted by the vote of confidence given to ING REIM and our team in Japan by the fund's blue chip, global Institutional Investors all of whom have supported our appointment," said Richard Price, chief executive at ING REIM Asia.

"We are excited by the opportunity to provide our services and support in what is a difficult situation for the investors, the previous manager and, of course, the existing fund team. "We are pleased that a number of their staff have agreed to join us to complement the skills and experience of our local team in Tokyo and ensure the institutional knowledge of the investments remains to the benefit of the Fund's investors," added Price.

Topics