LaSalle Investment Management is planning to invest in property development projects in the first half of this year as part of the firm's strategy to increase exposure of its Asia Opportunity Fund III to Australia.
"After Lehman and all the rest of the financial crisis, like most investment groups we battened down the hatches, we piggy-banked the war chest and put a padlock on it and focussed on our existing assets," LaSalle Investment Management Asia Pacific chief executive Ian Mackie told a media briefing in Sydney.
"After about 15 odd months of doing that we have actually taken the padlock off the war chest again," Mackie said.
The investment arm of real estate behemoth Jones Lang LaSalle is looking for a partnership with a property developer to invest in offices or logistic property.
"In some countries like Japan we can buy standing assets and make the sorts of returns that are appealing to an opportunity fund. We are under no illusion that we can do that in Australia," Mackie said.
"So we would expect to come out further on the risk curve in Australia and become involved in development projects.
"Having said that, we are not a developer - we are an investor and we are seeking to partner with developers in Australia who would be interested in having a capital partner in projects."
LaSalle said that on average the return in an opportunity fund would be in the region of mid to high teens.
LaSalle's Asian opportunity fund has US$3 billion in funds under management, of which about $1 billion is invested.
"So it's the remaining $2 billion in that fund that we are seeking to put in place now and we are increasing our focus on Australia," Mackie said.
LaSalle currently has two investments in Australia. It has a 25 per cent interest in 400 George Street in Sydney in partnership with Investa, and a 50 per cent interest in shopping centre Westfield Doncaster in Melbourne, in partnership with Westfield.
These investments have a combined value of about US$600-700 million, Mackie said.
