ING Real Estate has bought the remaining third of Baring, Houston & Saunders (BH&S) which it does not own. It has also committed itself to investing £250m in new funds developed by BH&S.
ING already owns 66% of BH&S, which it acquired in 1995. Four BH&S directors, including co-founder Robert Houston who is to join the ING Real Estate board, will receive an undisclosed sum over five years for their stake. Non-equity holding staff will also benefit from the deal. BH&S will still be run from London and no staff changes are expected.
The deal will also create a residential property fund with £150m of assets by combining ING’s residential portfolio with BH&S’s residential fund. The new fund will be marketed to UK and international institutional investors later this year.
ING, which manages £16.5bn of assets worldwide, said it would allocate at least £250m to invest in new UK indirect property funds to be promoted by BH&S, which has £1.5bn of funds under management. BH&S said it was looking at a retail fund for 2002 and another fund to invest in property shares.
BH&S director Peter McPherson said: “The deal gives us the chance to leverage off ING’s global holdings and allows us to introduce our clients to their products in the US, Europe and Asia and gives us access to overseas investors. “
Jan Doets, chief executive officer of ING Real Estate, said: “The full integration of BH&S into ING Real Estate marks a very important step in our international expansion.”
EGi News 15/03/01
