Even in the era of the mega-fund, institutional real estate investors have evolving investment needs where placement agents can play a unique role. Recently, Institutional Real Estate Asia Pacific senior editor Jennifer Molloy spoke with a number of placement agent experts.
Risk is a fashion item. Like the music of Bob Dylan or Beethoven, it’s always there but has to be rediscovered by every generation. While a generation has a life cycle of perhaps 30 years, financial market risk tends towards shorter cycles — 10 to 15 years seems to be the norm.
Investors are asking ever more numerous, sophisticated and varied questions about their real estate exposures. Whether addressing climate risk, broader societal issues or total portfolio risk, investors are seeking enhanced tools to better understand their exposures.
Given strong competition in the market and the threat of an economic slowdown, we believe smart investing must combine both offensive and defensive thinking. This means we seek assets that provide both value-creation potential and downside protection.
As of yet, it is unclear if these departures will hamper the pension funds’ overseas investment push this year, but the momentum seems clearly to support the CIOs’ intended 2020 allocations, as indicated in the annual survey of Korean investor CIOs conducted this past October.
Despite headwinds, such as the general economic slowdown, trade situation between the United States and China, and the social situation in Hong Kong, the fundamental attractions of Asia’s top occupier locations, such as Singapore, Tokyo, Shanghai, and even Hong Kong, remain little changed.
AIP Asset Management has acquired the headquarter office campus (pictured) of the largest financial institution in Finland, OP Financial Group, for €480 million (US$530 million), on behalf of a South Korean–Finnish consortium.