The fund manager is targeting UK, French and Spanish stocks
US property adviser and investor LaSalle Partners has opened a branch of its securities business in Europe and is planning to plough international money into European stocks.
ABKB/LaSalle Securities (Europe) is assembling a number of investment funds of around $100m each, and will invest for individual clients holding separate accounts. It will also look to invest in pre-IPO companies via private placings, said managing director Robert La Fors.
Chicago-based LaSalle Partners teamed up with investment adviser Alex Brown Kleinwort Benson in 1985, and owns a controlling stake in the company. In the US, ABKB/ LaSalle Securities manages $2.6bn of clients’ money invested in real estate investment trusts. Demand from these clients for European exposure has led to the creation of the Amsterdam operation, said La Fors.
“We will be investing on behalf of US, European and maybe Far Eastern and Middle Eastern clients,” he said. The fund manager would target UK, French and Spanish stocks initially, and then consider investing in the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden. It would be looking to build a pan-European exposure by investing in a range of country-specific funds.
La Fors said LaSalle in Chicago was analysing European property markets to see how closely share price movements correlated with the direct property markets. “Property shares are normally half a year to a year ahead of the property market. We think France is a very interesting country to invest in because the [direct] market is at the bottom of the cycle,” he said, adding that property shares in France were beginning to recover.
ABKB/LaSalle would also consider buying into private placements; a private placement programme started a year ago in the US had proved successful, with around $300m invested so far. “If we are going to invest in private companies we will be shooting for IPO after one to two years,” said La Fors.
La Fors was recruited to head up the Amsterdam operation from the Dutch pension fund MPMA, where he had been in charge of real estate investments for seven years.
LaSalle, which raised $84m earlier this year when it floated on the Chicago stock exchange, is also working on creating a US Reit that will invest in UK property.
