SEB Asset Management has been awarded the IPD EuroProperty award for investment performance in Germany. Its SEB ImmoPortfolio Target Return Fund, which is a open-ended property fund with a global remit, was singled out in the 'specialist fund' category for providing the highest total return relative to the appropriate sector benchmark, annualised over three years to December 2007. The fund provided a return of 8% last year.

SEB Asset Management has been awarded the IPD EuroProperty award for investment performance in Germany. Its SEB ImmoPortfolio Target Return Fund, which is a open-ended property fund with a global remit, was singled out in the 'specialist fund' category for providing the highest total return relative to the appropriate sector benchmark, annualised over three years to December 2007. The fund provided a return of 8% last year.

Last week SEB's ImmoPortfolio Target Return Fund acquired confectionary manufacturer Cadbury Schweppes' logistics property in Milton Keynes for around £28.5 mln from an investment vehicle managed by Axa Sun Life. SEB re-entered the UK market in July after a three-and-a-half year hiatus with the acquisition of a logistics building in Doncaster. In total, the fund has EUR 510 mln of assets under management. It has invested in 34 properties over the past seven years in eleven countries, including the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Norway and the US.

Earlier this month, the fund acquired an office property in Düsseldorf-Rath, Germany, for EUR 22 mln. The 9.743 m2 office, in the Thedorpark district, was acquired from Dibag Industriebau in Munich. The building is fully-let to ThyssenKrupp Real Estate GmbH.

The IPD EuroProperty award is presented annually by the editors of UK-based trade journal EuroProperty and the IPD Investment Property Databank. Fund management companies from countries such as the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain took part in this year’s competition. SEB is a Swedish financial group, which is also active in Germany, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. It had EUR 244 bn of assets under management as of 30 June 2008.