George Jautze to retire as CEO of ING REIM

ING Real Estate Investment Management (ING REIM) announced on Wednesday that CEO George Jautze has decided to retire. The vacancy created by Jautze’s departure from the post he took up in the summer of 2009 will not be filled. William Connelly will assume responsibility for ING REIM in addition to his current responsibilities as head of Banking Services within ING Commercial Banking. The change will be effective as of 1 March 2010.

Jautze joined ING in 1991 as manager of MBO, a real estate finance and development company and predecessor to ING Real Estate (ING RE). He joined ING RE's Management Board in 2001 with responsibility for Investment Management and was appointed CEO of ING RE in 2005. After the decoupling of ING RE in July 2009, he took on the role of CEO ING REIM which was envisaged to become part of ING’s global investment management platform.

Bank-insurer ING Group said it will continue to manage ING REIM as a separately-managed global entity within ING Commercial Banking. ING announced its intention to transfer ING REIM to ING Investment Management in April 2009, when it unveiled plans to create a Global Investment Manager.

In a statement, ING said: 'As a result of the agreement reached with the European Commission in October 2009, the most important priority for ING at this time is to successfully disentangle Banking and Insurance and execute the separation in a way that maximizes value for all stakeholders. In light of this agreement, the transfer of ING REIM to ING Investment Management adds complexity from an organizational, legal, financial and risk perspective at a time when the disentanglement of banking and insurance needs to be the priority.'

'ING remains fully committed to ING REIM as co-investor in many of the existing REIM funds and will continue to co-invest in ING REIM’s new business initiatives, enabling the real estate investment management business to benefit from market opportunities. Keeping ING REIM within the bank will allow it to stay focused on its positioning as one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers dedicated to servicing its clients and delivering superior performance.'

ING Group also published its results for the fourth quarter of 2009. The group took EUR 558 mln in writedowns on its real estate holdings. It sold EUR 800 mln in direct real estate in the fourth quarter, leaving it with a total property portfolio of EUR 13.1 bn at end-December 2009.

Click on the link below to read: 'ING REIM to fall under Banking, not Insurance'