NETHERLANDS - The €266bn Dutch asset manager APG is part of a syndicate bidding for a €1.9bn ING property fund.

The ING Industrial fund (IIF) consists of 60 mainly Australian, but also European, industrial and campus facilities.

Harmen Geers, spokesman at APG, said that because the value of property had dropped due to the economic crisis, real estate was a promising asset class.

"Moreover, because leases rise with inflation, real estate carries lower inflation risk," he said.

APG has raised its strategic property allocation from 8% in 2009 to approximately 9% in 2011, Geers said.

According to the spokesman, co-investing in non-listed property with a small number of investors has become a trend during the last couple of years.

"It makes decision-making easier and - because the lead investor usually takes on the management of the acquired property - also offers better control of the object," he said.

Among the other investors in IIF is the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which also co-participated with APG in the €1bn investment in the large London retail centre Westfield Stratford City last year.

Topics