New Global REIT Fund Making Investments

TOKYO-Locally headquartered Nikko Asset Management has begun investing in global REIT securities through a new fund, Sekai REIT Mother Fund. Designed for Japanese individual investors, the fund has raised 14 billion yen (US$130 million) to date.LaSalle Investment Management is the fund manager. LaSalle’s global securities portfolio manager Steve Carroll says is targeting target public REITs and REIT-like companies in North America, Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. “The global REIT market is expanding rapidly, and, as evidenced by their reaction to this fund, Japanese investors increasingly have been attracted to the higher liquidity and yields offered by real estate securities,” says Carroll. A member of the Jones Lang LaSalle group, LaSalle Investment Management is a real estate investment manager with approximately US$23 billion of assets under management. The Securities division of LaSalle has approximately US$4.4 billion invested in real estate securities globally.Nikko Asset Management, established in 1959, was one of the first asset management companies in Japan. The company now manages more than $50 billion in assets. Nikko Asset Management is a member of the Nikko Cordial Group, a listed entity on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.