Deals

ING launches €1bn global real estate fund of funds

Netherlands-based ING Real Estate has unveiled details of its open ended global fund of funds, Global Osiris, with ambitions to attract as much as €1 billion in capital within 18 months.

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The world’s largest real estate investment manager has launched a global fund of funds, Global Osiris, saying it hoped to attract €1 billion ($1.5 billion) of capital to it within 12-18 months.

ING Real Estate Select, ING Group’s property fund of funds business, said Global Osiris would be structured as an open-ended vehicle targeting returns of 8-10 percent by investing in unlisted real estate funds in markets around the world. As well as unveiling detail of the vehicle, the firm also revealed that Global Osiris had attracted £150 million seed capital from the London Pension Fund Authority.

A spokeswoman for ING said the new fund aimed to raise €1 billion within 12-18 months and would be managed by Damien Smith who joined ING Real Estate Select as chief investment officer last year.

Commenting on the launch, Nick Cooper, global chief executive of ING Real Estate Select, said the fund was tax efficient and structured to minimize investor administration and filing requirements. “With countries around the world at different stages of their property market cycles, we are now well placed to offer investors the benefits of entering these various markets,” he added.

Vanessa James, investment director at the London Pension Fund Authority, the largest local government pension scheme in London, said the fund had held a beauty parade of real estate fund managers offering global property exposure. It chose ING’s vehicle above the others for its tax efficiency and also for the presence of investment managers globally.

Up until now, the pension fund has invested in UK property unit trusts only, though last year it invested with ING’s European version of Global Osiris as a prelude to its global investment strategy. The pension fund’s active sub fund, which manages £2.5 billion of members’ money, has a 7 percent allocation to global real estate, 5 percent to global infrastructure, 5 percent to global private equity, and up to 3 percent in commodities, James told PrivateEquityRealEstate.com. The commitment to global real estate is now satisfied via ING’s Osiris fund.