All articles by Shayla Walmsley – Page 61
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News
Irish construction scheme ups allocation
REAL ESTATE - The Construction Federation Operatives Pension Scheme (CFOPS), the Irish builders’ fund, has boosted its real estate allocation by 2% with a move into indirect investment. Until last year the €570m fund held 10% of its po...
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Ilmarinen wary of real estate price rises
REAL ESTATE - Economic growth could prove just as big a risk to real estate investors as slowdown, according to Finnish pension fund Ilmarinen. Against a buoyant Finnish economy, year-end results revealed that Ilmarinen’s €2.1bn real e...
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David Hunter joins Halladale as consultant
REAL ESTATE - Halladale has appointed former Aberdeen and Arlington managing director David Hunter as a consultant to Rynda, its majority-owned fund management business. The UK commercial property group set up Rynda last year to expand its co-inv...
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Stouthamer’s Composition opens HK office
REAL ESTATE – Erwin Stouthamer’s Composition Capital Partners has opened a regional office in Hong Kong. The office would deal with local partners and scout out new investment opportunities for its Asia private real estate fund of fund...
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ING Real Estate names Central Europe MD
REAL ESTATE - ING Real Estate has appointed Martin Sabelko as managing director of its Central Europe investment management business five months after his predecessor quit the job. Sabelko will be responsible for local management of the ING Prope...
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Foncia acquisitions drive growth
REAL ESTATE - French property firm Foncia says it is already close to reaching its 15% growth target for 2006 thanks to an aggressive acquisition strategy that has seen it swallow up smaller French rivals. The residential real estate manager post...
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Firms selling property to pay for pensions
REAL ESTATE - Two of Britain’s most high-profile firms are to plug pension fund deficits with property assets. BAE Systems says it plans to help plug its £2.4bn (€3.5bn) main pension fund deficit with £240m in property asset...
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Swiss funds urged to up real estate
REAL ESTATE - Credit Suisse has urged Swiss pension funds to increase their real estate holdings to 20-30% – but the Zurich-based bank’s own corporate pension fund says it has no intention of doing so.
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Unite embroiled in student debt row
REAL ESTATE - Unite, which develops and manages student accommodation in the UK, has become embroiled in a row over student debt after extending contract terms. The firm is to extend mandatory contract terms for students in its Birmingham property...
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Marks & Spencer ‘could get REIT boost’
REAL ESTATE - Marks & Spencer could increase its share price by almost 80p to 580p if it places its property portfolio in a REIT, investment bank Morgan Stanley says. A research note issued by the bank’s real estate desk, anticipating th...
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BNP Paribas reduces Klepierre holding
REAL ESTATE - BNP Paribas has played down its decision to sell part of its share in French property firm Klepierre. A spokeswoman for the bank described the decision to reduce its shareholding from above 53% to below 51% as “not a significa...
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Corio in court action over Italy deal
REAL ESTATE - Retail property management firm Corio has filed suit for €46.8m against Italy’s Barletta Group over the 2003 turnkey acquisition of Campania shopping centre outside Naples. Corio claims the company has failed to comply w...
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UK schemes warm to real estate - Watson
REAL ESTATE - It’s taken them five years but UK pension funds are at last warming to real estate in a bid to diversify away from equities, according to research conducted by Watson Wyatt Investment Consulting into its clients’ approach to...
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London scheme wary of real estate
REAL ESTATE – SAUL, the Superannuation Arrangements of the University of London, is avoiding real estate amid wider concerns about the transparency of ‘alternatives’. An investment committee meeting last week failed to decide on ...
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Investors eye Eastern Europe – selectively
REAL ESTATE - The robust trade in Eastern European real estate has continued with acquisitions for GE Real Estate and divestments for IVG. GE expanded its Slovakian retail portfolio with the acquisition of three “Max” shopping centres...
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Dutch institutions in frame at Schiphol
REAL ESTATE – Dutch institutional investors could be in the frame if proposals to part-privatise Amsterdam’s Schiphol come through. With political agreement as remote as ever, the Dutch finance ministry has suggested a compromise combi...
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European yields not deterring investors
REAL ESTATE – Recent figures from European real estate firms show that there’s continuing investment in the asset class despite declining average yields. Yet much of the investment is taking place outside investors’ domestic mar...
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UK REITS problems ‘ not insurmountable’
REAL ESTATE - A semi-optimistic consensus has emerged in the industry response to draft UK Real Estate Investment Trust legislation after initial responses slammed the proposals as opaque and prohibitive. The draft, published in January, even fou...
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HSBC the latest to set up infrastructure firm
REAL ESTATE - HSBC is to set up an offshore investment company to exploit seemingly limitless investor appetite for infrastructure. The bank predicts an initial dividend yield of 5.75% in the company’s first financial year. HSBC spokesm...
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UK funds 'need new real estate mindset'
REAL ESTATE - UK pension funds need to upgrade their real estate managers if they’re to expand mandates into mainland Europe and beyond, according to Mercer consultant Greg Wright. Wright argues that yield compression and the opportunity...