First State boosts US team

COLONIAL First State Global Asset Management has bolstered the property securities team at First State Investments by poaching two senior analysts from UBS Global in New York.

Barry Oxford has joined as First State Investments as a senior portfolio manager and Marc Lederman as portfolio manager.

Both will be responsible for all stock selection and analysis for the North American component of the Global Property Securities funds and will report directly to John Snowden, the head of property securities of Colonial First State Global Asset Management based in Sydney.

Snowden said the global property securities team now manages approximately $US6 billion in segregated and pooled mandates globally.

He said while Oxford and Ledermans responsibilities will be for the North American markets, their experience will provide valuable backup and input to the European team of Stuart Martin and Matthew Gulczynski, based in London and to the Asia Pacific team based in Australia.

He added that the United States currently accounts for around 50% of Global Real Estate Investment Trust indices and it was important to get experienced and successful candidates for the team.

“The introduction of REITs in the UK has certainly brought the property securities universe to the UK investors attention, but the story really is a global one.

“Since the emergence of REITs in the US in 1960, a total of 17 countries now have REIT offerings and there are a further 13 countries with legislation in place or under consideration. This sector has huge growth potential, and we are now in a position to analyse from strategic positions around the world,” Snowden said.

Both Oxford and Lederman were previously at UBS Global Asset Management in New York.

Oxford was previous the senior REIT analyst at UBS and was responsible for buy and sell recommendations of all the US listed property securities and assisted with raising money globally to invest in global property securities.

Barry has over 13 years industry experience and has worked at Invesco Realty Advisors and Alex. Brown & Sons.

Lederman was also a senior REIT analyst and was part of a team that managed global and regional property securities funds focusing on the retail, net-lease, hotel and speciality property sectors.

Australian Property Journal