REIT fund launched in Finland

The Global REIT Focus Fund (SICAV) invests largely in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), or securities and companies principally engaged in real estate activities on a global basis.

Managed by Andrew Jackson, with Svitlana Gubriy as deputy manager, the portfolio aims to outperform the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Global Index by 2% per annum.

Åsa Norrie, investment director – Denmark, Finland, Norway & Sweden, Standard Life Investments, said: “There is a great deal of demand from Finnish investors to gain access to the global property market, but high quality offerings in the global listed property market are rare.”

There has been demand from institutional and retail investors, including insurance and pension funds, for such a vehicle, said a spokesperson from SLI.

The spokesperson said many pension funds from European countries, and in particular, Sweden, had invested in the fund already.