CHICAGO-Harrison Street Securities, an affiliate of locally-based Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, has been hired as the new sub-advisor to the $41 million Aston/Fortis Real Estate Fund. The focus of the entity, renamed the Aston/Harrison Real Estate Fund, is the management of US REIT securities.
Chris Zollo, SVP with Harrison Street Securities, said in a statement that this relationship will allow the company to have access to a deeper pool of potential new investors. His firm, led co-founder, President and CEO Chris Merrill, has about $475 million in assets under management.
Aston Asset Management, also based here, includes 25 mutual funds with more than $9.6 billion in assets under management. In November 2006, Highbury Financial Inc., in association with the firm's long-standing executive team, purchased the mutual fund business from ABN AMRO—renaming the funds the Aston Funds.
The fund invests in positions in REITs, with retail making up the bulk at 30% of holdings, including Simon Property Group (12%, about $5 million) and Boston Properties (8%, about $3.2 million). The fund, which also holds office, residential and health care trust interests, has a 13.47% return this year, and has been named by many analysts as one of the best performing mutual funds this year. The fund was trading at more than $9.80 last week, a steady progression up from $3 in early 2009, but also about half of the trading at $20 in late 2006.
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