UK - The GBP1.36bn (€1.9bn) Rhondda Cynon Taf council pension fund has awarded a  £100m UK property mandate, with possible exposure to other European markets, to ING Real Estate Investment Management.

ING Real Estate was appointed as a "multi-manager to implement a multi-fund investment strategy on a segregated basis with client specific perfomance objective", for a portfolio predominantly focused on the UK real estate market.

At year-end 2006, the fund only had a small exposure to real estate via a £227,000 UK property unit trust investment.

But following the review of its real estate investments, the fund is also considering "limited exposure to the wider European real estate market within the same multi-fund strategy" or via a pan-European fund of funds product.

There was no-one available at the fund to comment at the time of going to press.