Standard Life Investments makes 1st direct investment in Polish property market

Standard Life Investments, one of the largest property fund managers in Europe, today announced that it has made its first direct investment in the Polish property market.

In a joint venture with Panattoni Development Company (“PDC”), Standard Life Investments’ Select Property Fund is developing a 50,000sqm distribution warehouse facility located in Lodz, Poland. With construction starting in early February, the project is expected to be completed in September 2007.

In another joint venture with PDC, the Select Property Fund is developing a second distribution warehouse facility in Plzen, Czech Republic. Situated on the main highway between Prague and Bavaria, Phase I of the development will consist of 28,000sqm and is due for completion early in Q2 of this year. There is strong indicative interest for further capacity and an additional 33,000sqm is planned.

During the last 5 years, PDC has averaged nearly 10 million square feet of development annually, one of the most active records in the United States. PDC has developed and managed industrial, office and retail facilities in more than 150 markets. The firm is headquartered in Sacramento, California, and maintains over 26 offices throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

Andrew Jackson, Manager of the Select Property Fund, Standard Life Investments, said: " Standard Life Investments is delighted to be working with a first class international property developer of Panattoni’s calibre. I'm confident that these two excellent opportunities in Central Europe represent the start of a very fruitful period of collaboration between ourselves and Panattoni.

" We believe Central European logistical property offers exciting prospects for the future. These markets are ideally placed for two main reasons - they provide logistical operators with an axis to transport goods from manufacturing bases in Central and Eastern Europe to Western Europe, and serve as a distribution platform for goods traded between Northern and Southern Europe.”

Earlier this month Standard Life Investments announced that its Select Property Fund had broken the £1bn barrier in less than 15 months since its launch on 13 October 2005, making it the fastest growing mutual fund in the UK during the first 11 months of 2006. The performance of the fund has been very strong, with the retail accumulation unit price rising 44.2% since launch.

The first of its kind in the marketplace the Select Property Fund offers both institutional and retail investors access to UK and international property markets in North America, Europe and across Asia Pacific. The fund accesses commercial property markets via direct investment, unquoted specialist property products and stock exchange listed property vehicles globally.