Thomson Reuters Launches Investable Real Estate Benchmarks

Thomson Reuters Launches Investable Real Estate Benchmarks for Asia Pacific Region

Regional real estate indices for the top 100 regional property developers and REITs developed by Thomson Reuters, Global Property Research and Asia Pacific Real Estate Association

SINGAPORE, June 24, 2013 – Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, Global Property Research (GPR), a real estate index specialist, and Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (APREA), which represents and promotes the real estate asset class in the Asia Pacific region, today announced the launch of two investable Asia Pacific Real Estate Indices – based on the TR/GPR/APREA Composite index family launched earlier in the year.

The Thomson Reuters GPR/APREA Investable 100 and Investable REIT 100 indices have been developed with leading investors in Asia Pacific real estate. They reinforce the three parties’ commitment to provide a comprehensive suite of property benchmarks for Asia Pacific investors exposed to various levels of liquidity, and support Thomson Reuters vision to connect and enable the global financial community.

The new real estate indices cater to the needs of investors who include both developed and emerging market focused property developers and REITs in their portfolios, but who typically do not invest in companies which are traded less frequently and have lower market capitalizations.

The new indices are differentiated from other investable real estate indices in the following ways:

1.     The index rules are designed and maintained by a committee of Asia Pacific property specialists and investors, but implemented independently by Thomson Reuters

2.     They include both developed and emerging market property companies under the same rules rather than having separate indices for each

3.     They include both high growth Asian developers as well as traditional high dividend yielding companies

The Thomson Reuters/GPR/APREA Investable 100 indices are based on the total return of Asia Pacific property stocks and include the top 100 tradeable stocks weighted by free-float market capitalization in a way that represents the return characteristics of the overall Asia Pacific property stock sector.

“With continued interest in Asia Pacific Real Estate index products for benchmarking and investment product development, we are delighted to strengthen our collaboration with GPR and APREA , said Jason du Preez, head of indices at Thomson Reuters.  “Our first release has already been very well received and we are confident that the new investable indices reflect the holdings of many Asia Pacific property investors.”

“Liquidity is often a concern when providing tailor-made benchmark solutions for listed real estate investments, and we frequently develop more liquid versions of our existing indices,” said Jeroen Vreeker, head of GPR. “The Investable indices cover over 75% of the total market capitalization of our Composite index family and remain highly diversified but they avoid holding companies with higher transaction costs.  We are also pleased to offer an investable REIT series, which offers an ideal benchmarking solution for the growing number of investors with REIT specific mandates.”

“Increasing globalisation of real estate invariably leads to greater sophistication in portfolio management techniques as fund managers adopt competing strategies to outperform,” said Lim Swe Guan, Chairman of APREA. “The launch of the TR/GPR/APREA Investable Indices marks another milestone in our quest to provide robust benchmarking tools for the industry. Passive funds can invest in the indices, representing the top 100 property companies and top 100 REITs respectively in Asia Pacific, and active funds can demonstrate their value add through selecting stocks that outperform the particular index.”

Thomson Reuters and APREA announced collaboration in January 2013 to develop listed real estate indices for Asia Pacific.  This combines APREA’s regional knowledge and oversight as the key collective industry body in Asia Pacific real estate, with Thomson Reuters deep experience as calculator of some of the world’s most popular indices and GPR’s specialized expertise in real estate research and indexing.

With extensive experience in building, maintaining and distributing indices spanning multiple asset classes and specialties, index partners and clients have come to rely on Thomson Reuters for its unrivalled data and content sets, helping investors to make better decisions faster. For more information visit Thomson Reuters Indices.

Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial and risk, legal, tax and accounting, intellectual property and science and media markets, powered by the world's most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs approximately 60,000 people and operates in over 100 countries. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information, go to http://thomsonreuters.com.

About Asia Pacific Real Estate Association
The Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (APREA) is a non-profit industry association that represents and promotes the real estate asset class in the Asia Pacific region. It is the industry body for the suppliers and users of capital in the real estate sector.

Its membership comprises real estate companies, listed real estate trusts, unlisted property funds, investment managers, investment banks, property securities fund managers, institutional investors, real estate consultants, corporate advisors, stockbrokers, investment advisors and universities.

APREA’s achievements in education and information dissemination, and focus on improving the general real estate operating environment, have firmly entrenched it as the leading representative body for the industry in the region. In particular, its achievements in driving regulatory improvements within the listed real estate trust sector extend beyond existing markets and pave the way for the emergence of new markets in other Asian countries.

For additional information on APREA, please visit www.aprea.asia .

About Global Property Research
Global Property Research (GPR) specializes in the creation of tailor-made indices, available in various formats. GPR provides over 3,500 index series to benchmark investments in the listed real estate sector.

All index products use an extensive and unique proprietary database of global listed real estate companies. GPR has a proven track record since 1995. GPR offers its clients four standard benchmarks: GPR 250 Index, GPR 250 REIT Index, GPR General Index and GPR General Quoted Index. All its indices are distributed via various data vendors.

GPR has an independent, dedicated and experienced Index Team with hands-on service for clients. Moreover, all index calculation procedures and maintenance processes are performed in-house.

For additional information on GPR, please visit www.globalpropertyresearch.com .

ENDS

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