Fitch Ratings has rethought its methodology for rating and reviewing real estate asset managers. The original real estate asset manager methodology was based closely on Fitch’s general asset manager methodology, and this was also changed, in May 2007.

Full contents

Peter Sceats, director, TFS Property.

The conversion of Hamburg-based real estate company alstria into a Reit at the beginning of October and its inclusion in a new Deutsche Börse German Reit segment in November heralded a new dawn for the German property market. But despite the big long-term potential of Germany’s position as Europe’s largest property market, observers aren’t expecting a substantial increase in the near future in the number of German Reits – known as G-Reits.

Martin McGuire is joining Axa Real Estate Investment Managers as European fund manager in London.

Morley Fund Management is reorganizing its UK property team and has promoted Philip Nell as new lead manager for two leading retail funds.

Merrill Lynch has invested $377 million in the Indian real estate market, through the purchase of a 49% share of a portfolio of residential properties. The portfolio is managed by DLF, one of India’s largest developers, and comprises seven mid-income residential projects in Chennai, Bangalore, Kochi and Indore. The deal brings Merrill Lynch’s total investment in the market to $550 million.

In a recent interview, Merrill Lynch’s newly anointed chief executive, John Thain, revealed that the financial institution’s risk management system had ceased to function properly during the sub-prime crisis. That comment raised some eyebrows and provoked speculation about the possibility that Merrill’s particular black box might have been switched off.

Land Securities’ announcement that it will split into three sector-focused specialist companies is unlikely to signal the demise of generalist UK Reits. Other large Reits, such as Hammerson and British Land, have indicated that they will not pursue the specialist route. However, now that their share prices have come under significant pressure, many UK Reits will have to reconsider their structures and strategies, making Land Securities an interesting market test case.

Meinl European Land (MEL), Austria’s second-largest real estate company by market capitalization, is under investigation by its local regulator, the Financial Market Authority (FMA).

Market veteran Christopher Casey has joined AIG Global Real Estate in New York as a managing partner and product specialist in the capital markets group.

India’s real estate sector is simultaneously huge and underdeveloped. Much-needed capital is flooding in from domestic and foreign sources, yet many building plans are still prospective rather than under way while sector-focused financial instruments, including Reits, are absent or at a rudimentary stage of development. Elliot Wilson reports.

Cash-rich Gulf-based funds are ploughing billions of dollars into real estate in the fast-growing economies of India and China, lured by eager regional and municipal governments and the promise of double-digit annual returns. The economies of China and India are growing at an annual rate of about 12%. US investment bank Merrill Lynch expects India’s property sector to expand to $90 billion by 2015 from $15 billion in 2005.

JPMorgan is building its French and Italian real estate structured finance business with a string of new hires, all taken from ABN Amro.

Jon Lekander is the new chief investment officer at Aberdeen Property Investors.

Guy Ratcliffe, executive director, Morgan Stanley

Local banks have finally started to take the mortgage market seriously. After decades of high interest rates that made residential lending impossible, they are slowly branching out into what could be an enormous market. Chloe Hayward reports on the challenges.

Prupim, the UK-based real estate investment arm of M&G, has taken steps to further its sustainability efforts. The manager has teamed up with Royal & SunAlliance to provide Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) for Prupim’s entire property portfolio, thought to be an industry first.

German residential properties have fallen out of favour with some of the big-name US private equity investors. Is their withdrawal a signal of market decline or is there still value to be had? Duncan Wood reports.

The doom and gloom in the US is in stark contrast to the joy and boom in Russia, where there’s an overwhelmingly bullish tone across all segments of the real estate market. Guy Norton looks at the formula for success employed by two leading Russian developers.

Europe’s retailers are between a rock and a hard place. Activist investors are pushing them to separate their vast property assets and realize value in the short term when the evidence suggests companies that continue to hold the freehold to their properties get higher returns in the long term. But UK supermarket group J Sainsbury could have found a solution for retailers in a joint venture with UK real estate company Land Securities – Harvest Partnership – announced in November.

AIG Global Real Estate is one of the largest and most prolific investors in emerging markets. Now that Brazil, Russia, India and China are the focus of almost every big investor and developer, the US-based firm is far ahead of the pack. The group’s president, Kevin Fitzpatrick, speaks to Rachel Wolcott about AIG’s history in emerging markets and why enthusiasm for these markets might be overdone.

Wachovia Securities has appointed four managing directors to run its new integrated real estate platform.

Aberdeen Property Investors has teamed up with Swedish insurer Folksam to create a pooled fund structure open only to companies within the Folksam Group. Aberdeen plans to roll out this new type of instrument for indirect property investments to other large multinational companies with separate pension plans.

Jones Lang LaSalle thrives on size & sustainability

Jones Lang LaSalle, this year's winner of the Euromoney/Liquid real estate poll, is expanding with the global real estate markets. CEO Colin Dyer explains why a local feeling is important in a global market, and why sustainability makes business sense.

The emerging global asset class • Anatomy of a deal • Maturity brings sophistication • Start at the exit • Credit rules • New markets, proven approaches • Five years leading from the front

A wave of new property fund launches across Asia indicates that the region’s markets are set for rapid growth.

JPMorgan’s innovative approach to real estate has put it at the top of the Liquid Real Estate poll’s equity category. Laurence Neville finds out why the firm has become a force to be reckoned with.

London-based Grosvenor Group transacted its first Japanese property derivatives trade in July. The trade, a two-year total-return swap on the IPD Index for Japan, is the next step in Grosvenor’s foray into the property derivatives market.