Aberdeen Property Investors, the specialist property arm of Aberdeen Asset Management PLC, announces the launch of an Asian Fund of property funds (AIPP Asia). To this end, Aberdeen has appointed Kang Puay Ju who will work alongside Aberdeen's existing and highly regarded indirect property team based in Stockholm.
Aberdeen already has over €9 billion under management, both in direct and indirect property in Europe. The group's indirect property unit, Aberdeen Property Investors Indirect Investment Management (API IIM), last year launched Europe's first and largest pooled property fund of funds, raising EUR 623.5m from institutional investors around Europe. Aberdeen now aims to replicate that success in Asia.
Anders Åström, Managing Director of API IIM commented: "Property is increasingly a crucial component of institutional portfolios. Investor demand is changing from focusing purely on domestic and, or regional markets to opportunities further afield that offer both diversification and the potential for higher returns. We have been a pioneer in European property fund of funds and now look forward to extending our expertise into Asia where the property investment market is developing rapidly. We are seeking to combine our team's leading positions in the property fund of funds industry with Aberdeen's strong presence in Asian equities to analyse indirect property investments across Asia."
The Asian fund will build up real estate exposure through investments in a number of different property funds across Asia Pacific (including Japan) and is expected to have its first closing in September 2006.
On the appointment of Kang Puay Ju, Anders Åström, Managing Director of API IIM said: "We are very pleased to bring someone of Puay Ju's calibre and broad experience of Asian real estate markets into our team. We are convinced that she will contribute to the further strong development of our business."
Kang Puay Ju will join Aberdeen on September 1st, and will be based in Singapore. Her role will be to identify, evaluate and manage interesting investment opportunities for AIPP Asia, in conjunction with Stockholm-based Fund Manager Mr Bo Ljunglöf. Kang Puay Ju was recruited from ABP where she was a senior portfolio manager responsible for the establishment of the company's private real estate investment platform in Asia. Before that she was vice president at GIC Real Estate for six years.
Hugh Young, Managing Director of Aberdeen Asset Management Asia, added: "We're very excited about the potential for the Group to develop its property capability here. Our pension clients on the equity and bond side are often active in the asset class, and so what we're doing is complementary. We see great scope to cross-sell products both in Europe and Asia."
Source: Aberdeen Property Investors
