ING Real Estate has reached agreement on the acquisition of US property asset manager Clarion Partners LLC and its subsidiary CRA Real Estate Securities.
Clarion has $4.5bn assets under management for institutional and private clients, offering direct property investment services as well as managing investment funds.
CRA, which manages investment portfolios in listed real estate funds for its clients, has another $1.6bn under management.
The acquisition will boost funds under management by ING Real Estate from $11bn to $17bn, making it the third largest property manager after RoProperty Services, which amongst others manages the Rodamco fund and the investment assets of Australian giant Lend Lease.
The management of ING Real Estate’s existing property portfolio in the US of $900m will be integrated into the operations of Clarion, which is based in New York and has nine other offices across the USA.
