Melbourne-based boutique fund manager SG Hiscock yesterday announced the launch of a global listed securities fund after striking a deal with international real estate investment firm LaSalle Investment Management.
According to SG managing director and founder Stephen Hiscock, the fund – to be branded theEquity TrusteesGlobal Property Trust given its distribution role for SG – will only invest in global property stocks that fit the same criteria as Australian listed property trusts.
“The criteria requires the investment to pay most of the income out, have a high yield and have more than 50 per cent of its income derived from traditional property ownership,” he says.
Hiscock says the fund, the capital of which will be predominantly hedged, will have access to about 250 international stocks with a combined market capitalisation of approximately $350 billion. Equity Trustees will handle both retail and wholesale distribution of the fund.
Hiscock says he decided to launch a global fund as Australian investors are looking to overseas markets for additional returns.
“We needed to gain access to unbiased global property experts who we felt looked at property the same way we do and from our perspective LaSalle is the ideal joint venture partner on this basis,” he says.
LaSalle Investment Management is part of the global property real estate agency Jones Lang LaSalle, which has $29 billion of property assets under management, the investment arm of which has $5.7 billion invested in real estate assets globally.
LaSalle’s global securities portfolio manager Steve Carroll says the fund manager’s approach is to invest in long-term investments using a value management style.
“In the US, La Salle was one of the first real estate securities investment managers and has more than 17 years investing experience,” he says.
Hiscock says the tie-up with LaSalle will provide the Australian boutique manager with “extraordinary access into this vast network and it provides our property team with a level of insight that is difficult to match”.
No minimum investment levels for the fund have been set, but it is expected retail investor cut-off will be $5,000 while wholesale minimums will be $250,000, but Hiscock says the figures will be flexible.
