Following a decision to sell its insurance and investment management businesses to concentrate on banking, ING Real Estate Investment Management Australia (REIMA) has decided on Lend Lease as the most preferred bidder. Beating competitor, Colonial First State, the company declared, "The transaction builds upon Lend Lease's investment management and retail platforms and its model of investing alongside third party capital partners".

REIMA Chief Executive Denis Hickey said in a statement, "As part of our strategic review for the Fund, we have explored all options to maximize unit holder value and at this stage there is merit in continuing to work with Lend Lease to finalize this offer”. The transactions will take until half of next year to complete owing to the $ 9 billion in assets under management across Australia.

The consortium of Lend Lease and its partners are euphoric about the deal too. "The assets from our point of view are attractive to our platform. There are some really high quality assets and we believe we can manage them and add value over the long term”, says Investment Management Chief Tarun Gupta. The systematic allocation is already underway, though Mr. Gupta was reluctant to name any of the other partners.