Die besten Immobilien Aktienfonds

Die Fondsmanager der besten Immobilien Aktienfonds haben fünf Fragen zur globalen Konjunktur, den fundamentalen Faktoren in diesem Sektor, den Gewichtungen sowie Performances ihrer Produkte und zu den bedeutensten Risiken bei globalen Immobilienaktien beantwortet.

e-fundresearch: "What is your expectation concerning the global economy and its impact on the global real estate markets?"

Guy Barnard und Patrick Sumner, Fondsmanager des "Henderson HF Global Property Equities A2 USD" (07.09.2010): "Despite the recent volatility, stemming from sovereign debt worries and concerns over the strength and sustainability of a global economic recovery, property fundamentals remain on a gently sloping recovery path. We are of the view that we are entering a period of low economic growth in the developed economies, rather than a double dip. Assuming also that interest rates and bond yields remain below trend for some time, income producing assets such as property, and property equities, should become more attractive.

The prevailing view among investors seems to be that the unwinding of the sector’s debt burden will create only losers. This opinion is, in our view, misguided, as we believe that the listed property sector, with its relative low leverage and access to both debt and equity markets, should be able to capitalise on the distress of others. We therefore expect further consolidation of real estate assets from the highly leveraged owners and banks, into the hands of long-term holders, including the listed sector.

It is impossible to generalise about the global economy and real estate markets. Weak demand in Western economies is not symmetrical: it does not affect all sectors of society in the same way, and certain properties in certain locations will perform better than others. London offices and retail, for instance, will do better than the UK average.

After the roller-coaster ride of the last three years, a period of gentle progress would, we believe, be a good thing for the sector. If it is to be a proxy for physical property, the listed property sector should be less volatile than other equities, and there are signs that this is at last proving to be the case."

Folmer Pietersma, Senior Portfolio Manager "Robeco Property Equities D EUR" (09.09.2010): "Our macro outlook assumes a modest GDP growth for the developed markets and a sustainable high single digit GDP growth in Asia and emerging markets."

Guy Mountain, Fondsmanager des "Sarasin Real Estate Equity - Global B" (09.09.2010): "The first stage in what is likely to be a long haul out of the post-Lehman’s crisis is drawing to a close, not altogether unsuccessfully. Revolutionary policy stimulus (both fiscal and monetary) on a scale not seen in fifty years succeeded, for the most part, in reinvigorating economic growth, stabilising global trade and triggering a massive rebound in financial markets. Despite a mountain of negative sentiment, global growth seems to be just about holding steady; last month, the IMF upgraded activity for this year from 4.2 to 4.6% with higher growth and inflation in emerging and developing economies. The challenge in the next stage will be to see if the stimulus applied has real durability.

Extremely low summer trading volumes, exaggerated by ‘Quant’ and computer-driven trading models, have left the market paranoid about ‘macro news shocks’. However, most US economic data has surprised on the upside in the last few weeks, and Bernanke’s speech at Jackson Hole reassured investors. Admittedly, the risks have increased, but (evaluating all economic evidence so far) we do not believe we are heading back into recession. In this climate, the global listed real estate sector remains reasonably valued, although a sustained improvement in the economic picture is needed to push US, UK, European and Japanese real estate stocks substantially higher. The stability and visibility of a significant number of listed real estate companies’ cash flows and dividends should continue to make real estate stocks attractive in a low bond and cash yield environment, and we feel that companies with strong balance sheets and prime portfolios in good locations will outperform companies with more secondary assets. Lastly, despite the positive effects of higher GDP growth in emerging and developing economies policy intervention has subdued markets in the Asia ex Japan region."

Peter Seys, Fondsmanager des "KBC Select Immo World Plus Acc" (08.09.2010): "We believe that the recovery of the economy is in a crucial phase: the indicators tell us that the growth rate will diminish in 2010 and 2011. This could already be seen in the second quarter growth of the American GDP. On the other hand was the growth more broad-based. Our base scenario is that a self-sustaining growth will emerge. A crucial factor will be the American job market. Short–term news for the sector will not be great in the sense that we expect a slow market for a longer period and rental values are likely to disappoint."

Joe Rodriguez & James Cowen, Portfoliomanager des "Invesco Global Real Estate Securities A" (09.09.2010): "The initial momentum behind the economic recovery has been diminished and we might expect austerity measures in western economies and policy tightening measures in a number of eastern economies could reduce the magnitude of global growth in the mid-term. At present it appears interest rates and bond yields may remain at low levels for longer than previously anticipated. From an investment demand perspective, higher yielding asset classes like real estate may benefit if spreads versus fixed income investments remain at current attractive levels. However, from a real estate industry operating perspective, a generally low growth environment may delay a recovery in occupier demand for real estate space and continue to pressure rents. We believe that the dispersion of possible economic outcomes remains wide; therefore we expect to maintain a focus on listed companies with prime real estate assets and best of breed management teams who are able to maintain earnings growth. We do, however, also expect emerging market economies to continue to outperform from an economic growth and demographic change standpoint. As such, opportunities for rental growth and development exposure in markets like China and Brazil are likely to be attractive."

Patrick Brophy, Fondsmanager des "Janus Global Real Estate A USD Acc" (10.09.2010): "While it’s clear that macro issues continue to drive markets, compressing correlations and fueling volatility, we believe investors will eventually return to a focus on fundamentals and valuations. In the meantime, there are opportunities to capitalize on what we view as a mispricing of quality assets with sizeable long-term upside. Clearly, there are geographies where macro concerns are weighing more heavily – Europe with its sovereign debt issues, China with its policy-driven collaring of the housing market – and these are precisely the markets where we anticipate uncovering the most attractive investment opportunities. That said, we will continue to tred cautiously, as we still see a host of potential obstacles that could derail what appears to be an increasingly fragile recovery.

Finally, it’s in these sorts of uncertain times that we like to remind investors of the defensive qualities of strategic and well-managed commercial real estate – long-term leases, transparent cash flows, conservative leverage, inflation hedging. Moreover, we remain long-term bulls, convinced that factors ranging from demographic trends and investment objectives to growth prospects and an increasingly favorable supply-demand equation in many markets will over time generate solid returns for what is rapidly becoming a more mature and innovative asset class."

Teresa Marziano, Fondsmanagerin des "AllianceBernstein-Global Real Estate Secs Pf A USD" (09.09.2010): "Our expectation is that the global expansion which started around the second quarter of 2009 will continue, albeit at a more modest pace than past recoveries. The near term outlook is challenging and global economic growth is likely to be below potential for the remainder of 2010. Other features of this outlook include lower inflation expectations underpinned by slack capacity in many segments of the world economy, a slowdown in monetary policy normalization across most of the developed world with a low interest-rate environment lasting possibly through 2011.

The complexities involved in forecasting the global deleveraging process led to growth expectations that were optimistic earlier in the year. Events over the last three months, however, have forced market participants—particularly those in the developed world—to accept that near-term economic growth is likely to be below trend as consumers and, in some regions, corporations seek to de-lever and governments begin to address fiscal challenges. Major sources of economic uncertainty remain in the developed markets. These include the stability of the US housing market, its impact on consumers and financial institutions, and fiscal developments in peripheral euro-area countries which may impact global credit markets.

In contrast with the outlook for most developed markets described above, Australia, some developed Asian countries (such as HK and Singapore) and some developing countries (Brazil, China and several Asian emerging economies) are on path to deliver at or above-trend growth for 2010 and 2011. Governments in these countries have been vigilant in monitoring inflation and excessive growth in asset prices, however, and will be proactive in taking monetary, fiscal and administrative measures if necessary.

We believe the likelihood of economic activity relapsing to the point of recession is low. Historically such double-dip episodes have been caused by policy errors, which governments are unlikely repeat as they are well aware of the possible deflationary forces that a contraction would unleash. Accommodating monetary and fiscal policies reflect this cautious stance.

Global real-estate prices have fully participated in the recovery that global markets have enjoyed over the last 18 months. During the recession, direct property prices in most developed markets declined by between 20% and 40%. Real-estate equities suffered even steeper declines from their peaks, but have recovered significantly since March 2009. In general, real-estate operating income declined less than had been expected when the recession began. This resilience continues to underpin a recovery in real-estate direct markets and securities. Going forward, we believe that below-trend economic growth will result in a weaker recovery in the demand for space. Offsetting this, the construction of new space has been constrained by lack of financing, which will positively impact the supply/demand dynamic in most markets. This is likely to bode well for rents and operating over the medium term.

Properties held by public companies tend to be of superior quality and location relative to those held by private companies. In addition, public real-estate companies are generally more robustly capitalized than their private peers. This is a function of their ability to access various sources of attractively priced debt and equity capital. Public companies are exploiting these advantages to gain market share, thus further strengthening their income resilience and growth potential. Further, some public real-estate companies are making attractive acquisitions and proactively divesting underperforming assets - actions that support future income growth.

The market still fears the negative impact of properties financed by untenable capital structures and those that have suffered a permanent loss of income (and, consequently, value). A slower economic recovery will intensify the bifurcation that already exists between prime and nonprime real-estate assets. Public companies that hold a material percentage of non-prime assets (or assets that have become less prime) are likely to suffer greater cash flow erosion than those that don’t. Public companies with robust balance sheets that are able to acquire good but poorly capitalized properties are likely to benefit as the assets are restructured."

e-fundresearch: "Which fundamental factors are currently most crucial for the global real estate sector?"

Guy Barnard und Patrick Sumner, Fondsmanager des "Henderson HF Global Property Equities A2 USD" (07.09.2010): "The long term value of real estate assets comes from the underlying rental income stream they generate. The ability to grow this income stream ultimately comes down to the demand for that space, which is highly correlated to economic growth. Stronger growth means more demand from businesses for office space; stronger retail spending from consumers, which increases demand for retail space, and so on. However even against the backdrop of more muted growth there are some pockets of the market that will outperform; retail and offices in Central London, are for example already seeing rental growth, as are offices in Hong Kong and Singapore.

On the supply side, we see very little in the pipeline. In the major office markets there is likely to be a shortage of new building for several years, given the lack of development finance."

Folmer Pietersma, Senior Portfolio Manager "Robeco Property Equities D EUR" (09.09.2010): "Fundamental factors that are positive for the sector include the limited supply of new commercial space coming to the market versus an expected modest growth in demand. This will improve occupancy levels and support rents. A second positive factor includes the lower refinancing costs driven by lower interest rates and tightening in credit spreads. In emerging markets we see the urbanization trend and penetration of commercial real estate space as a long term growth trend."

Guy Mountain, Fondsmanager des "Sarasin Real Estate Equity - Global B" (09.09.2010): "Availability of debt continues to be crucial for the global real estate sector, as a significant amount of refinancing needs to take place over the next few years. However, in most cases listed global real estate companies were early to recapitalize, meaning that their balance sheets are now reasonably robust and refinancing should not (in theory) cause too many headaches. They are also able to access capital markets which (as mentioned above) should allow them to take advantage of any refinancing issues in the private market.

The quality and location of listed real estate companies assets will be vital – since the lows of March 2009, the situation has very much been one of ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’. Still, with valuations in most areas now back to sensible levels, the most likely winners are companies with prime assets in good locations.

Finally, we still see good real estate market fundamentals in Asia ex Japan, though government policy intervention across the region is significantly affecting investors’ sentiment."

Peter Seys, Fondsmanager des "KBC Select Immo World Plus Acc" (08.09.2010): "Location and type of property will be key factors: we believe Central London retail and prime French shopping centres will outperform (eg Unibail rodamco) whilst being careful about companies with a high interest in the City (British Land) because these look vulnerable to lower than expected rental growth. Interest rates/bond yields will play a crucial role, meaning that a further drop should help companies that have quality income but secondary assets might not be so lucky. Deflation might become a factor as well but our view is that this won’t be great for property but that the sector will not suffer the most."

Joe Rodriguez & James Cowen, Portfoliomanager des "Invesco Global Real Estate Securities A" (09.09.2010): "Despite the downturn, most markets and sectors do not have a significant over-supply of vacant real estate. This is crucial toward an ability to maintain current rents and push them higher when occupier demand picks up. This is already being evidenced in several larger global cities such as Hong Kong and London, where office rents have grown during 2010. Demand from investors for stable income remains key for the sector and such appetite has seen capital values for real estate rise in most parts of the world during 2010. Importantly, listed real estate companies are generally now well capitalized and able to take advantage of new investment opportunities to drive earnings growth. Finally, we see the fundamental changes in demographic trends globally and in particular in emerging markets, as being long-term positive to real estate. The world continues to urbanize and many areas still have a structural under-supply of quality real estate in which to live, work, store goods and spend leisure time. Listed real estate companies are at the forefront of providing supply to this demand and collecting the financial gain."

Patrick Brophy, Fondsmanager des "Janus Global Real Estate A USD Acc" (10.09.2010): "As we work to position the Fund in these turbulent markets, we continue to seek out opportunistic investments, concentrating, as always, on the key characteristics of our long-established investment philosophy: focused businesses, disciplined allocation of capital, compelling valuation, high barrier-to-entry markets, attractive/irreplaceable real estate assets, development expertise, and quality management."

Teresa Marziano, Fondsmanagerin des "AllianceBernstein-Global Real Estate Secs Pf A USD" (09.09.2010): "The most important factor for the global real-estate sector over the next two years will be the availability of liquidity to real-estate markets. In the private and direct markets, the cost and availability of credit is crucial to the stability of property values. A steady improvement in credit would remove some of the risk of unexpected distress in these markets. The availability and cost of credit is important for public companies, too, but they also need access to market equity. Access to credit at reasonable cost would bode well for debt refinancing and would help realestate companies to maintain a reasonable cost of capital. Access to equity enables public real estate companies to grow by capturing investment opportunities when attractive assets become available.

Also very important for real estate markets are the macroeconomic trends that influence space absorption, such as regional employment and consumer behavior (the interrelation between saving and consumption). Positive employment trends create demand for space and support consumer confidence; rising consumer confidence would positively affect the performance retail, lodging and residential properties.

Space supply is another factor critical to space absorption. While new development pipelines are, for the most part, quite reduced in most important real-estate markets, demand and space absorption need to rebound ahead of new supply to allow a healthy recovery in rental pricing power."

e-fundresearch: "Which over- and underweight positions are currently implemented in your global real estate funds?"

Guy Barnard und Patrick Sumner, Fondsmanager des "Henderson HF Global Property Equities A2 USD" (07.09.2010): "The Henderson Horizon Global Property Equities Fund is currently positioned with a small overweight in Asia, where we see the strongest economic growth prospects, most notably in China, Hong Kong and Singapore. In Europe, the Fund continues to be focused on four major stockmarkets – London, Paris, Amsterdam and Stockholm. In North America, the Fund is overweight in specific retail and healthcare stocks, but underweight in the industrial sector."

Folmer Pietersma, Senior Portfolio Manager "Robeco Property Equities D EUR" (09.09.2010): "The fund is invested according to four key themes: (1) retail REITs (2) specialized REITs (3) emerging market developers and (4) cyclical office recovery. The fund has limited regional deviations from its benchmark as it aims to generate alpha through bottom up stock selection."

Guy Mountain, Fondsmanager des "Sarasin Real Estate Equity - Global B" (09.09.2010): "At present it is difficult to make any significant regional calls as government intervention around the world continues to have major repercussions. As such, we have been reducing our country bets for the time being, although there will be trading opportunities. However, our main over- and underweights at present are:

Underweight Europe ex UK – a position we have held all year in response to European solvency issues, and the belief that valuation uplifts would not be strong due to the small write-downs companies took during the downturn (compared with the UK). We have been focused on the large cap quality names and good solid yielding companies (mainly retail) which were hit hard by the Greek crisis but have since rebounded. We are aware that debt issues have not entirely disappeared, and are therefore looking to add to some of the companies exposed to the periphery.

We are also overweight Japan, mainly through the developers, which are at significant discounts to their net asset values. With the Miki Shoji Tokyo office vacancy figure for July showing its first decline for two and a half years, we feel we are seeing the first signs of stabilisation in the Tokyo office market, which should lead to outperformance by the developers in the short to medium term. The yen strength is concerning us at present, and over the longer term we will carefully monitor the levels of demand for space, in light of the office supply hitting the market in 2012."

Peter Seys, Fondsmanager des "KBC Select Immo World Plus Acc" (08.09.2010): "The following companies are currently the biggest underweighting’s: Westfield Group (B01BTX7), Sun Hung Kai(6859927), Simon PPTY Group(2812452) and Digital RLTY(B03GQS4), while Health Care Prop(2417578), Mack Cali RLTY(2192314), Suntec Real Estate(B04PZ72) and Essex PPTY(2316619) are overweight."

Joe Rodriguez & James Cowen, Portfoliomanager des "Invesco Global Real Estate Securities A" (09.09.2010): "Our long term preference is to invest in listed companies that can deliver above average earnings and net asset value growth, backed by secure balance sheets. In a slower growth environment we have recently also increased our investment focus on companies with higher, sustainable dividend yields. Regionally, we maintain greatest growth opportunities lie in the Asia (ex-Japan) region and we recently made first investments in Brazil. Identifying global real estate markets with a structural under-supply of institutional quality real estate is a key focus of our research process. Companies with exposure to these markets tend to be outperformers. We also commonly hold investments in non-traditional real estate sectors such as self storage, student accommodation, or data centers. These sectors often have higher barriers to entry and due to their evolving nature, have shown superior earnings and capital value growth profiles."

Patrick Brophy, Fondsmanager des "Janus Global Real Estate A USD Acc" (10.09.2010): "Looking at the key geographies, the Janus Global Real Estate Fund remains overweight North America and underweight Europe, Japan and China. This geographic allocation is where our bottom-up analysis has led us, and it fits with our defensive macro posture. Looking forward, we anticipate a shift towards Europe and Asia, as those are the regions where we are currently finding the most compelling valuations. Asia-ex Japan, in particular, looks interesting, as prices have come down and we continue to believe it will prove the growth engine for the global economy. The Global Real Estate Fund has to date taken a conservative approach to China, choosing to add exposure largely through the Hong Kong/China hybrids rather than the pure China plays. The fundamental goal is to gain access to an aggressive China growth strategy, while, at the same time, maintaining the better transparency and valuation back-stop of a solid base of established Hong Kong assets, particularly in the office and retail sectors."

Teresa Marziano, Fondsmanagerin des "AllianceBernstein-Global Real Estate Secs Pf A USD" (09.09.2010): "The most important factor for the global real-estate sector over the next two years will be the availability of liquidity to real-estate markets. In the private and direct markets, the cost and availability of credit is crucial to the stability of property values. A steady improvement in credit would remove some of the risk of unexpected distress in these markets. The availability and cost of credit is important for public companies, too, but they also need access to market equity. Access to credit at reasonable cost would bode well for debt refinancing and would help realestate companies to maintain a reasonable cost of capital. Access to equity enables public real estate companies to grow by capturing investment opportunities when attractive assets become available.

Also very important for real estate markets are the macroeconomic trends that influence space absorption, such as regional employment and consumer behavior (the interrelation between saving and consumption). Positive employment trends create demand for space and support consumer confidence; rising consumer confidence would positively affect the performance retail, lodging and residential properties.

Space supply is another factor critical to space absorption. While new development pipelines are, for the most part, quite reduced in most important real-estate markets, demand and space absorption need to rebound ahead of new supply to allow a healthy recovery in rental pricing power."

e-fundresearch: "Please comment on the performance and risk parameters of your fund in the current year as well as over the past 3 and 5 years."

Guy Barnard und Patrick Sumner, Fondsmanager des "Henderson HF Global Property Equities A2 USD" (07.09.2010): "The fund outperformed its index by 99bp over the 12 months to June 2010. The fund maintained fairly neutral regional positions, although a slight overweight allocation in favour of the US was established in the latter part of the year, enhancing relative performance. Stock selection in the region was particularly beneficial with a number of deep value holdings such as SL Green, Alexandria REIT and Macerich re-rated aiding performance. The addition of more growth-oriented stocks like Las Vegas Sands and Entertainment Properties Trust also delivered significant returns.

The overall return for Asia Pacific was 6.1%*, but within the region there was significant divergence. Japanese property equities posted a negative return of 9.7%*, while the Australian property sector rose 24.6%*, as its economy managed to avoid recession. The Hong Kong market was relatively subdued, returning 4.9%*, as it reacted cautiously to policy tightening by the Chinese government. In light of the large dispersion in country level returns, asset allocation within the Asia Pacific subfund added value. Over the period, the fund’s exposure to the weaker markets of Japan and Hong Kong was kept in check, while we increased our allocation to Australia, as the sector repaired balance sheets and regained market confidence. In Singapore, we opened an active bet on the region’s office market and in particular built a position in Keppel Land, benefiting from the subsequent 84%˜ rally.

Over the period, equity markets in Europe were subject to considerable volatility as sovereign debt worries caused investors to de-risk their portfolios. The depreciation of the Euro against the US dollar was striking, falling 14.5% in the first six months of 2010. In the property sector the positive yield gap between rental yields and the cost of money remained supportive, stimulating an increase in direct market transactions. While confidence in physical property markets improved, the listed market languished. We believe that this is due to the limited size of the market and to fears of further falls in rental values.

Detrimental to the funds performance was its overweight position in the UK. While UK property companies were active in capturing opportunities thrown up in the wake of the financial crisis, this did not translate into share price performance. Stakes in smaller companies, which raised equity to capitalise on distress, like MAX Property and LXB Retail Properties, were costly. However, the funds preference for West End specialists Great Portland Estates and Derwent London added value.

Over the longer time periods of 3yrs, 5 yrs and since inception, the fund has outperformed its benchmark. Furthermore, consistent with the investment process, the majority of the alpha generated has been through stock selection, where the regional fund managers have the discretion to make equity level decisions in their local markets."

*all returns in US$

Folmer Pietersma, Senior Portfolio Manager "Robeco Property Equities D EUR" (09.09.2010): "The fund's risk parameter is set by a maximum tracking error of 7%. Realized tracking error is circa 4%. Over the last three years the fund has outperformed the benchmark by an annualized 1.5% (before costs). Over the last 5 years this performance is 0.4%.The current team is responsible for the fund since beginning of 2008."

Guy Mountain, Fondsmanager des "Sarasin Real Estate Equity - Global B" (09.09.2010): "We outperformed strongly in the downturn, but suffered in the recovery from March 2009 due to our conservative position in large cap blue-chip names. The main reason for this was the ‘dash for trash’, where the highly levered, illiquid stocks substantially outperformed. As markets have now stabilised, we have seen the quality names start to outperform once again, and we believe that our fund is well positioned going forward. With regard to the tracking error versus our benchmark, it has never been excessive – even with our liquidity screening process removing the long tail of illiquid names from our investable universe."

Peter Seys, Fondsmanager des "KBC Select Immo World Plus Acc" (08.09.2010): "2010 (tem 2/9/10): Fund 31.36% vs Benchmark 31.76%
3Y Annual perfo fund: 1.6% vs BM 3.27%
5Y Annual perfo fund: -1.5% vs BM 0%
We tend to take our major risks in the European part of portfolio because of our knowledge of the underlying market. In the US our active positions are between the various segments. In Asia our positions our mostly passive."

Joe Rodriguez & James Cowen, Portfoliomanager des "Invesco Global Real Estate Securities A" (09.09.2010): "The Fund underperformed the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Index over the last year through July 2010, during a period where investment risk appetite has been volatile, albeit generally above average. However, over the longer term, our fundamentally driven approach, with a disciplined risk management process, has enabled the group to deliver consistent excess returns. Our real estate market research process allows a focus on a real estate company's long-term investment value as we believe that long-term performance will be determined by property market cycles, quality of real estate assets, and expertise of the management team. A structured securities analysis process offers the opportunity to add value over the shorter term to take advantage of relative value inefficiencies. We strive to balance a security’s long-term return potential while statistically measuring portfolio risk and expected tracking error. We seek to avoid significant style bias in our portfolios, recognizing that consistent return profiles are more achievable through a securities valuation process that can reflect changes in investor risk and return requirements throughout the economic cycle."

Patrick Brophy, Fondsmanager des "Janus Global Real Estate A USD Acc" (10.09.2010): "A defensive posture and the selective participation in the re-equitization of the property sector were key strategies for the last 18 months. Re-equitization is really just a nicer way of saying dilution, which is what happened to many shareholders of real estate companies in the developed markets throughout 2009 and into 2010. Perhaps more important, however, was how often these dilutive equity issuances proved positive catalysts for the stocks. In hindsight, the thesis was fairly straight-forward: the removal of the bankruptcy overhang brought investors back into the fold, pushing share prices from substantial discounts to closer to net asset value. A critical component of our defensive posture has been an over-weighting of the regional malls; definitely somewhat counter-intuitive, as a weakened consumer suggested a rocky retail environment, but our belief has been that these cash flows would prove surprisingly resilient, which so far has played out."

Teresa Marziano, Fondsmanagerin des "AllianceBernstein-Global Real Estate Secs Pf A USD" (09.09.2010): "Our portfolio construction leverages our in-depth fundamental research. Our fund is positioned to benefit from attractively valued companies that are experiencing improvement in demand despite near-term macroeconomic uncertainties. We look for companies that have distinctive strengths which enable them to navigate a period of sub-par economic growth—strengths such as an ability to gain market share, improve and lease vacant space at higher rates, lower their costs or take advantage of above-average regional demand trends. These strengths are likely to result in robust cash flows, resilient balance sheets and higher dividend growth. We also believe that there are attractive opportunities in emerging markets. These tend to require intensive research, and we apply our fundamental and company research to identify attractively valued opportunities that benefit from secular growth in real-estate demand. Our Global Real Estate Fund is overweight lodging and self-storage companies, Brazil residential developers, mall companies and Canadian REITs. We are also overweight several niche and specialty segments across a number of geographies where secular trends are driving demand growth. Overall the fund is overweight short-duration cash-flow companies that are able to reset rents more frequently than long-duration cash-flow companies and thus take advantage of recovering markets."

e-fundresearch: "What are the major risks for global real estate equities?"

Guy Barnard und Patrick Sumner, Fondsmanager des "Henderson HF Global Property Equities A2 USD" (07.09.2010): "Despite the recent volatility, property fundamentals remain on a gently sloping recovery path. There is always the risk of an external economic shock, but in our view most economies have steered clear of the economic abyss into which they stared last year. The greatest challenge to the sector is, in our view, negative investor sentiment. This stems in part from a view that the upside has already been seen and partly from fear of the outstanding debt burden overhanging the sector. Despite this, we believe that property is still in the early stages of a long-term recovery and while we believe that this real estate cycle is likely to last longer than previous cycles, given the slow start, there is not the oversupply of new space that characterised the 1990’s. As such, when the economy turns up, rental growth should follow quickly. There will be continue to be investment opportunities over the next few years for those with the right balance sheet and skills, and the current generous dividend yields are, in our opinion, underpinned by solid cash earnings and a modest capacity for growth."

Folmer Pietersma, Senior Portfolio Manager "Robeco Property Equities D EUR" (09.09.2010): "Major risks include a double dip and a financial crisis whereby credit spreads will increase significantly. In emerging markets we see government policies to curb residential prices as an uncertain factor."

Guy Mountain, Fondsmanager des "Sarasin Real Estate Equity - Global B" (09.09.2010): "With real estate’s fortunes closely linked to economic growth, a ‘double-dip’ remains the main risk for listed global real estate. Certain key shocks – such as a sharp deterioration in US unemployment figures and housing market, prevailing European sovereign and banking debt issues (causing debt markets to seize up), or a burst in China’s housing market – would be able to cause this situation."

Peter Seys, Fondsmanager des "KBC Select Immo World Plus Acc" (08.09.2010): "In general, a slow economic recovery, more into detail: a slow economic recovery will jeopardize rent income as well as cause a constant level of vacancies. When the interest rates start to rise again, this will translate into a higher finance cost, which in turn will slow down development of new property. Commercial real estate is currently the weakest segment, but on the upside it has the biggest leverage so when the economy really starts to do better, this will be the most interesting segment."

Joe Rodriguez & James Cowen, Portfoliomanager des "Invesco Global Real Estate Securities A" (09.09.2010): "The key risks for real estate are similar to those for all other equity based investment classes and are mostly of a macro related nature. The inability of western economies to maintain sustained positive GDP growth remains a key risk. A stable economic base, even if growth remains relatively muted, is important to the maintenance of positive business and investor sentiment, and reduced capital market volatility. From a fundamental standpoint, any period of deflationary economic characteristics would be challenging, however, this is not our base case, and long contractual real estate leases can protect income in the short to mid-term. Lastly, the impact of refinancing requirements for governments, corporations, and many real estate owners over the coming years remains somewhat unknown and has the potential to re-exert significant pressure on the global financial system."

Patrick Brophy, Fondsmanager des "Janus Global Real Estate A USD Acc" (10.09.2010): "While market prognosticators debate the potential for Us, Vs, and Ws around the world, we chose to focus our energy on understanding the key elements of long term performance in global real estate equities. That said, we do worry that any number of macro mishaps could derail a still fragile global economy. Is Greece an isolated incident, or the first of many sovereign debt crises? Is the developed world transitioning to a muted and jobless recovery? Can emerging markets, China in particular, pick up the slack for the U.S. consumer and backstop global growth? We certainly don’t have the answers, but we will keep a watchful eye on the macro environment as we pursue our bottom-up approach to investing. As always, we will anchor the Janus Global Real Estate Fund with a geographically diverse mix of what we view as the most productive commercial real estate on the listed markets, and we will continue to work diligently to uncover those unique growth opportunities with the potential to enhance shareholder returns."

Teresa Marziano, Fondsmanagerin des "AllianceBernstein-Global Real Estate Secs Pf A USD" (09.09.2010): "The AllianceBernstein Global Real Estate Luxemburg Fund has followed a global strategy since August 2007. Prior to that date the fund invested exclusively in US real-estate equities. Over the last three years (ending June 30, 2010) the fund has outperformed (after fees) the FTSE EPRA NAREIT Developed index with a tracking error of 4.2% and an absolute portfolio volatility of 30.3% that has been 1.1% below benchmark volatility. Over the last 12 months (ending June 30, 2010) the portfolio has lagged the index, maintaining a low tracking error of 2.5% and an absolute volatility of 18.8% which was 0.6% in excess of the benchmark volatility. Over the long term we aim to outperform the FTSE EPRA NAREIT Developed Index with volatility that is in line with the index and a tracking error of less than 5%.

The AllianceBernstein Global Real Estate Luxemburg Fund is managed with a value philosophy. Risk considerations are paramount. In the current uncertain environment we are using research to take advantage of a broad array of opportunities. We lean on a variety of return sources to achieve our expected premium to the market. We believe that this breadth of exposures in the portfolio provides our fund with healthy return opportunities and robust risk diversification."

Alle Daten per 31.08.2010 in Euro / Quelle: Lipper

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