All articles by Richard Lowe – Page 81
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UK pension funds hit by Fitch downgrade to real estate debt
UK – MEPC, a specialist business park investment company wholly-owned by BT and Royal Mail pension funds, has had its debt financing downgraded by Fitch.
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Aberdeen shoots down growth of pension fund JVs
GLOBAL – Aberdeen Property Investors has defended the indirect real estate investment approach and predicts the recent popularity of joint ventures among large institutional investors will be a short-term phenomenon.
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Mercer and Mn Services rethink real estate expertise
GLOBAL – Mercer and Mn Services have bolstered their respective real estate teams
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Knight Frank service to deliver pension funds the VIP treatment
UK – Real estate agency Knight Frank has launched a new segregated investment management business for pension funds and other institutional investors seeking to invest in UK real estate.
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Concerns over offshore vehicles drive demand for local real estate structures
EUROPE – Cross-border investors in Germany, France and Italy are increasingly looking to locally- regulated structures for their international real estate investments, according to Schroder Property.
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UK residential returns outperformed commercial property - IPD
UK – Investment grade residential real estate in the UK has outperformed commercial property in the country over the past three, five and nine years, and delivered a double digit total return of 11% in 2009, according to International Property Databank (IPD).
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London’s iconic Tower 42 is put up for sale
UK – Hermes Real Estate, the wholly owned property fund management arm of the BT pension fund, has put the Tower 42 office building in the City of London on the market for £300m (€342m).
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BVK expects to tap opportunistic real estate growth
SWITZERLAND – Swiss pension fund BVK is confident that opportunistic fund managers it has committed capital to will soon begin to see more opportunities in the global real estate markets.
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European real estate could be short of €115bn in refinancing
EUROPE – European real estate debt markets face a refinancing gap of €115bn over the next two years, and many lenders are unlikely to be able to extend loan periods any longer on certain properties, according to DTZ.
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US and European investors reveal different gearing interests
GLOBAL – Appetite for gearing levels in real estate funds has diverged between European institutional investors and those based in the US, according to a multi-manager.
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Spain tops the losses for IPD European returns
EUROPE – Spain experienced its second consecutive year of negative commercial real estate returns in 2009, while Germany and Switzerland remained relatively stable over the same 12-month period, according to Investment Property Databank (IPD).
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BVV PK places real estate activity on ice
GERMANY – The €21bn BVV Pensionskasse for banks has decided it will make no new real estate commitments for the next 12 months, but expects to increase its long-term allocation to the asset class in the future.
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Currency swing stifles positive return on institutional funds
EUROPE – Institutional European real estate funds on average delivered a negative euro-denominated return of -1.6% in 2009. But there was a huge variance of investment performance among funds over the 12-month period, according to Investment Property Databank (IPD).
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Unilever’s Progress nears end of direct real estate divestment
NETHERLANDS – CB Richard Ellis is in negotiations with an unnamed investor to exchange on the remaining assets of the domestic real estate portfolio of Progress, the Dutch pension fund of Unilever.
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Investors to decide gearing on L&G’s property income
UK – European institutional investors that have committed to Legal & General Property’s (LGP) new UK core fund have been given a choice over the level of gearing they will be exposed to.
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Rothschild Realty sees fresh prospects for US housing
UNITED STATES - Rothschild Realty Managers has made a $100m (€74.9m) equity investment with Summit Housing Partners based in Montgomery, Alabama, on the back of renewed confidence in the housing market.
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CalPERS wins right to vote on REIT board
UNITED STATES – California Public Employees Retirement Systems (CalPERS) has won support from fellow shareholders to introduce annual board elections at a specialist hotel real estate investment trust (REIT).
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Ireland’s NAMA takes on property-backed 'bad bank' loans
IRELAND – The Irish government has confirmed its National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), or so-called ‘bad bank’, has started to take €16bn worth of troubled real estate loans on to its books.
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Royal Mail Pension ends 27-year run for real estate manager
UK – LaSalle Investment Management is to take over the management of the Royal Mail Pension Plan’s (RMPP) £1.6bn (€1.8bn) UK real estate portfolio, which has been run by Hermes since 1995 and under its previous incarnation PosTel since 1983.
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Pension funds maintain German real estate security
GERMANY – Total returns for German real estate declined for the second consecutive year, but pension funds in the country have continued to focus heavily on their domestic market because it “feels safer”, according to a leading pension fund manager.
