Czech republic...w/ US Prudential

From Czech Business Weekly

Securities offered

By: Martina Marečková, 30. 04. 2007, More by this author

German family-owned bank Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. in March joined its rivals Credit Suisse Asset Management and Československá obchodní banka (ČSOB) to offer investors the opportunity to invest in a real estate securities fund in the Czech Republic.

The bank focuses on asset management and investment, and private banking, and is offering five sub-funds of the Worldwide Investors Portfolio (WIP) fund jointly with Pramerica Financial, a brand named used by insurance group Pru-dential Financial. One of these funds is WIP Global Real Estate Securities Fund (WIP GRESF), which managed total assets of over $1.2 billion (Kč 24.7 billion) by end of January 2007.

Petr Žabža, director of asset management at Sal. Oppenheim in Prague, said WIP GRESF invests in real estate companies based primarily in developed markets. A maximum of 10 percent is in emerging markets. Institutional and retail investors can also buy real-estate security funds with ČSOB, for example. ČSOB Realitní mix fund focuses on investment in shares of development companies active on real estate markets of Central and Eastern Europe. Based in Luxembourg, WIP GRESF is managed by Pramerica Real Estate Investors, a subsidiary of Pramerica Financial. WIP GRESF funds can be purchased by Czech investors through brokerjet České spořitelny, the online brokerage service of bank Česká spořitelna. WIP GRESF was named fund of the month by brokerjet in April 2007 and investors had until the end of April to pay a 0.5 percent fee for investing in WIP, compared to the standard 2.5 percent that will be charged as of May, said Tomáš Koníček of brokerjet’s customer care department.

Prague is the only capital in Central and Eastern Europe where Sal. Oppenheim has an office. The bank opened this office in November 2005, and considerations about transforming the Prague office into a full branch “might be taken in due course,” Žabža said. It falls under the direct responsibility of Sal. Oppenheim’s branch office in Vienna, Austria. Sal. Oppenheim is also looking to expand representative offices in Poland and in Hungary, Žabža said.