ING Dutch flagship funds to convert to semi-open structure on January 1

ING Real Estate's closed-ended Dutch flagship funds are to convert to a semi open-ended structure with an infinite lifetime on January 1 next year. The Netherlands-based company said in a statement that the change concerns the ING Dutch Office Fund, ING Dutch Residential Fund and the ING Dutch Retail Fund. In total, the funds have EUR 4.5 bn worth of assets under management for 49 institutional shareholders.

The new regime will allow institutional investors to purchase and redeem shares in the funds, with redemptions limited to 10% of the total equity per year to avoid any negative impact on the performance of the funds. Investors in the funds unanimously approved the new structure as a means of increasing liquidity.

ING Real Estate said the change is aimed at strengthening governance of the Dutch funds. To this end Thom Wernink, who retired as chairman of Corio, the Dutch listed retail property investment company in 2004, will replace the ING representatives on the supervisory boards of the three ING funds.

'The new semi open-ended structure gives investors a degree of liquidity our closed-ended funds simply could not offer,' commented Pieter Hendrikse, ceo of investment management Europe at ING Real Estate. 'Although our funds have excellent performance track records, their lack of liquidity was increasingly seen as a disadvantage.'