The management of the North American sleeves of Henderson’s global property equities funds will be run by the new in-house team. Since 2007, it had previously been mandated to US-based real estate investment group Harrison Street Securities. The transition will take place on 1 November.
Bob Thomas joined Henderson in August as head of North American property equities. He is based in Henderson’s Chicago office. He was previously co-head of North American listed real estate at AMP Capital, having previously worked for BNP Paribas Asset Management and Nuveen Asset Management.
Greg Kuhl has also joined the team in Chicago as a portfolio manager. He joins from Brookfield Investment Management where he worked on North American and global long only and long-short real estate funds. Finally, this month, Mike Engels joined as an analyst. He previously worked at Brookfield Investment Management.
Graham Kitchen, head of equities at Henderson, comments: “With recent acquisitions in the US developing our in-house equity expertise, it is a logical step to bring the management of North American property equities in-house. Not only do we believe this best serves clients in the existing global funds, but it also enables us to further develop the franchise and product offering in the future.”
Guy Barnard, co-head of global property equities based in London, says: “We’ve worked with Harrison Street for eight years and thank them for the service they have provided. Looking ahead, a strengthened property securities team, with dedicated portfolio managers in all of our key regions, will enable us to pursue a more integrated global investment process.”
The Henderson Horizon Global Property Equities Fund is up 35.3% over five years. This is in line with the wider sector average of 35% over the same period. The US holdings currently make up 54% of the fund.
