We placed the fund ‘On Hold’ on March 27, 2012, following AMP Capital Investor’s (AMPCI’s) and Brookfield Investment Management’s decision to unwind their joint venture, AMP Capital Brookfield.

AMPCI has brought the management of its listed real estate capability in-house. While there has been a degree of team turnover within the global real estate securities capability (particularly in the US), there have been no changes to AMPCI’s well-resourced Australian-based real estate securities investment team.

“We consider senior portfolio manager Mark Ferguson a highly proficient real estate securities investor. More than that, over time we have witnessed Mr. Ferguson positively influence the development of the Australian-based analysts; analysts who are now making meaningful contributions to the domestic strategy. This underpins S&P’s four-star rating,” said S&P Fund Services analyst Nathan Bode.

AMPCI has sought to enhance its investment process. While stock-level research remains critical to the predominantly bottom-up investment approach, the work carried out and focus of the analysts has changed.

AMPCI has added flexibility in valuation, but introduced a more structured approach to portfolio construction.

“While there appears to be a higher level of engagement and ‘buy in’ by the investment team in the new process, we would expect that these changes will take some time to bed down. This is an area that S&P will monitor closely,” added Mr. Bode. The business transaction is expected to complete shortly, although the operational separation is complete.

16 July 2012

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