ING Investment Management Launches Global Real Estate Fund

NFO OPENS ON NOVEMBER 20, 2007 AND CLOSES ON DECEMBER 14, 2007

Mumbai, November 19th, 2007: ING Investment Management India announces the launch of the ING Global Real Estate Fund, an open ended Fund of Funds (FoF) scheme for the Indian investors. The scheme opens on November 20, 2007 and closes on December 14, 2007. The earliest closure date is December 7, 2007.

The scheme will primarily invest in the Cayman Islands registered ING Global Real Estate Securities fund that seeks to provide investors with diversified returns consisting of income and capital appreciation over time. This will be India’s first open ended real estate fund and the first fund to offer Indian investors access to global property markets.

On this opportunity, Vineet K. Vohra, Managing Director and CEO, ING Investment Management India, said, "We are excited about introducing India's first Global Real Estate Fund. This fund opens up a new asset class for Indian investors. It aims to offer an investor returns that are better than a fixed income product but with lower volatility than an equity fund. It is the right time to bring such a product to India, as in today's volatile markets it potentially helps lower an investor's portfolio risk due to its low correlation with Indian equity and bond markets. This product diversifies across 21 countries and invests in commercial properties such as offices, shopping malls, healthcare facilities, hotels, apartments etc. As on date, the fund does not have any exposure to the US sub-prime housing sector."

ING Global Real Estate fund will act as a feeder fund for the Cayman registered real estate fund which is sub-advised by ING Clarion Real Estate Securities, a part of ING Real Estate. ING Real Estate is the largest real estate investment manager in the world with almost $145 billion in real estate assets under management.

ING Clarion the sub-advisor of this fund manages many real estate strategies, one of them being the ING Global Real Estate fund. This was recently awarded a 5 star rating from Morningstar out of 231 funds, based on its above-average performance and below-average risk for the five year period ending 30/11/06. It has been also ranked in the top quartile for 3 year, 5 year and overall performance as of 30/11/06. The fund has a large allocation to Asia-Pacific, followed by North America & Europe. In selecting investments for the fund, the investment manager seeks out companies that derive at least 50% of their total revenues or earnings from owning, operating, developing and/or managing real estate. The fund will not invest directly in properties but in real estate investment trusts (REITs) and real estate operating companies (REOCs).

The minimum application amount to invest in ING’s global real estate fund is Rs 5,000 and in multiples of Re 1 thereafter. The minimum additional purchases are of Rs 1,000, in multiples of Re 1 thereafter. The units will be available for Rs 10 per unit during the NFO and at applicable NAV thereafter. The NFO opens on November 20, 2007 and closes on December 14, 2007. Investors will have the choice of three options: Dividend option, Growth option and Bonus option. The Scheme may, at the discretion of the Investment Manager, also invest in the units of other similar overseas mutual fund schemes, which may constitute a significant part of its corpus and for liquidity requirement invest in money market securities.

This scheme will invest overseas via the SEBI guidelines which allow investments by the mutual fund industry to the extent of $ 5 billion.

"As Asia's 2nd largest & the world's 13th largest asset manager, ING Investment Management has a strong commitment towards India. We are looking at building a leading investment management franchise here by bringing in our global knowledge & expertise." concluded Mr. Vohra.

Source : Equity Bulls

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