Aberdeen Property Investors - Aberdeen Asset Management

Case study – Customised pooling structure
An innovative solution to a pension fund’s needs
Even large multinational groups can
find it difficult to include the benefits
of indirect property investments in the
individual national pension funds of their
subsidiaries. A well diversified fund of
property funds requires a critical mass
of capital allocated to property and not
all modest-sized local pension funds can
achieve that critical mass.
”I really value working with Aberdeen, which has succeeded
in developing and implementing a structure based on an
idea that I have had for a long time. Folksam has been an
investor in Aberdeen’s funds of funds over a number of
years. Their broad experience, professionalism and business
acumen make them an excellent partner for Folksam now
that we have opted to increase our allocation to
international indirect property investments”.
Esbjörn Wincent, Head of real estate investments, Folksam
Is there a solution to this problem One that pools the
resources of the many separate pension funds and gives the
group its own well balanced indirect property fund tailored
to its specific needs
Folksam, a major Swedish insurance company, worked with
Aberdeen to find the answer. The result of close cooperation
between Folksam and API IIM – Aberdeen Property Investors’
team for indirect investments – is AIPP Folksam Global:
a property fund of funds open solely to companies within
the Folksam Group and based on a unique pooling structure.
This innovative fund was created in October 2007. By using
AIPP Folksam Global, companies within the Folksam group
can invest via a joint Luxembourg-based structure. This offers
the Folksam group the ability to pool and coordinate its
indirect property investments, maximising cost efficiency
and offering greater diversification for the group’s pension
funds, both individually and as a whole.
AIPP Folksam Global is an umbrella fund with two sub-funds:
one for Asia and one for Europe. The initial investment capital
was more than €100 million distributed equally between the
sub-funds. The structure is open for additional annual capital
injections and there is flexibility to add more sub-funds
targeting other regions or specific sectors. AIPP Folksam
Global plans to make an average of one investment in Europe
and one in Asia each quarter so that the pool after the first
three-year period will contain ten to twelve funds in each
region. Folksam and Aberdeen are both represented on the
board of the fund’s management company, which decides on
investments.
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