By Allen Kenney
Thomas Properties Group Inc. is creating an environment-friendly fund. The company hopes to raise between $250 million and $300 million for the fund. The California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) has pledged $100 million to the fund, adding to Thomas’s own initial investment of $50 million. Thomas and CalSTRS have frequently teamed up on joint ventures in the past.
Thomas currently maintains approximately 30 assets in Texas, California, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
ING to Offer Global Funds
Retirement fund provider ING added two new options in November to its real estate offerings.
Both new funds have an international bent: the ING Asia-Pacific Real Estate Fund and the ING European Real Estate Fund. They are being managed by ING Clarion Real Estate Securities. Both funds intend to keep at least 80 percent of their assets in real estate equities.
“REITs have unique characteristics that may make them attractive to both income-seeking investors as well as those looking for growth,” says Shaun Mathews, who heads ING Funds.
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Global Real Estate Made EasyETF
Investment management companies AXA Investment Managers and BNP Paribas launched a new global real estate fund in early October 2007.
The new exchange-traded fund, the EasyETF FTS EPRA NAREIT Global fund, is designed to track the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Global Real Estate Index. The fund maintains approximately 27 million euros in assets and is listed on the Euronext Paris stock exchange.
As of early October 2007, more than 40 percent of the index consisted of North American companies. Listed real estate in Japan provided the second-largest portion–13 percent of the index’s makeup.
