Zacks_Analysts' Blog : LaSalle Gets Fresh Equity Capital - Analyst Blog

LaSalle Investment Management Inc., the property-fund unit of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (JLL) - a leading real estate investment trust (REIT), has recently received $200 million of equity capital from the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) to invest in real estate co-investment opportunities across the globe. This is the second such instance when LaSalle has bagged funds for investment from the Austin-headquartered public pension firm of the State of Texas.

LaSalle had initially teamed-up with TRS in 2009 to invest a sum of $205 million in real estate across North America as part of its strategy to capitalize on plummeting property prices. The strategic alliance established partnerships with private equity firms for co-investment with their fund and focused on a wide array of real estate investments. The fund, managed by LaSalle, aimed to create a diversified portfolio of various property types by targeting selected markets in North America at the outset and gradually spread its wings around the globe.

The present inflow of funds reaffirmed the long-term relationship of both the participating companies. LaSalle will invest the money in real estate co-investment opportunities across all property types, risk profiles, capital structures and geographies, and would primarily focus on TRS’ real estate specialist partners. However, the company stressed that it would also consider investing a part of the equity capital in other co-investment opportunities with partners unfamiliar with the pension fund.

Managing a portfolio of $43.0 billion of private and public property equity investments, LaSalle Investment is one of the world’s leading real estate investment managers. The company operates as an independent subsidiary of Jones Lang.

Chicago-based Jones Lang is a full-service real estate services firm that provides corporate, financial, and investment management services to corporations and other real estate owners, users, and investors worldwide. A broad real estate product and service range, and extensive knowledge of domestic and international real estate markets enable the company to operate as a one-stop provider of real estate solutions.

Jones Lang continually invests in industry-leading research to identify emerging trends and anticipate future conditions to respond to the shifting market and business trends of its clients. This enables the company to develop new investment products and services tailored to the specific investment goals and objectives of its clients, thereby maintaining profitable long-term relationships during challenging market conditions.

We maintain our Neutral rating on Jones Lang, which presently has a Zacks #3 Rank that translates into a short-term Hold rating, indicating that the stock is expected to perform in line with the overall U.S. equity market for the next 1–3 months. We also have a Neutral recommendation and a Zacks #4 Rank (short-term Sell) for Grubb & Ellis Company (GBE), a competitor of Jones Lang.