UNITED STATES - LaSalle Investment Management has expanded its REIT securities arm to Taiwan for the first time, with the creation of Taishin Global Real Estate Securities Fund.

LaSalle has been looking at going into the Taiwan market for over a year and has now signed a deal Taipei-based Taishin Investment Trust, according to Todd Canter, international director and global strategist at LaSalle.

 "Taiwan is a great global market where there is interest in investing in the country and in Asia in general, and a significant amount of wealth in the country to support this demand," said Canter.

Taiwan introduced the REIT structure in 2003 so it is anticipated Taiwan is a market any institutional investors will be looking to the next 2-3 years.

The Taishin Securities Fund will be run and operated by LaSalle and Taishin Investment Trust, with LaSalle acting as the portfolio manager and Taishin as the fund manager, while the long range goal is to have it grow by $100m (€68.3m) a year for the next few years.

Both large institutional investors including pension funds and smaller retail investors will targeted for commitments to the fund so the majority of assets can be used to buy stock in public REITs.

The Taishin Securities Fund is a total return commingled fund aiming for "stable returns", a significant amount of which is expected to be generated through income.

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