SWEDEN - Protego Real Estate Investors has revealed it is expanding into the Nordic market with the appointment of Lars Almquist to head its new Stockholm office.

The commercial property investment manager has appointed Almquist, former head of research & consulting for the Nordic Region at Jones Lang La Salle (JLL), as director of business development and to lead its Nordic expansion.

Almquist had worked at JLL between 2001 and 2005 as head of investment strategy for the Nordic region, advising major European institutional in their real estate strategy for the area, and has spent 10 of his 17-year career focused on the Swedish and European property markets

This latest move by Protego follows an earlier launch in June of its €1.65 billion Nordic retail fund, and signals the third such office opening since the company launched in 2004, having last year also acquired a presence in Amsterdam to cover the Netherlands market.

Protego now manages property worth €3bn in assets under management but focuses largely on property derivatives as well as building third-party real estate mandates.

Elsewhere, LaSalle Investment Management has appointed Philip Ling as managing director of its Asia Pacific operation.

Having left his role as chief executive of investment management for Australian real estate firm Lend Lease, Ling will now oversee the development of the firm's business strategy in the region from his base in Singapore, with specific responsibility for recruiting, training and managing the team of over 110 staff.

LaSalle now manages over $4.5bn (€3.3bn) in assets under management for that region alone since its launch in 2000, from its six offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai and Melbourne.

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