GIC Invests US$300m In US Property Hedge Fund

Source : The Business Times, January 16, 2008

The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) has committed US$300 million to a US hedge fund for investing in real estate securities, said a statement by the fund obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.

GIC's real estate investment arm will also acquire a minority stake in the fund, California-based Rosen Real Estate Securities, to capture its future growth, the statement issued by Rosen said.

The fund is run by Kenneth Rosen, a professor of real estate and urban economics at the University of California in Berkeley.

'We have known and respected Ken for a very long time and look forward to expanding our relationship,' GIC Real Estate president Seek Ngee Huat said in the statement.

The investment comes as property values have dipped sharply in the US, pummelled by a deepening mortgage crisis and fears of a recession in the world's largest economy.

GIC, which invests more than US$100 billion of Singapore's foreign reserves abroad, has also injected funds into major banks including nearly US$7 billion in Citigroup, announced on Tuesday, and US$9.75 billion for Swiss bank UBS AG.

GIC's sister firm Temasek Holdings took a US$4.4 billion equity stake in US brokerage Merrill Lynch last month, as global banks face massive write-downs from the US sub-prime mortgage crisis. -- REUTERS