Henderson Global Investors Announces Closing of Joint Venture Agreement for $100 Million Investment

Business Wire, Jan 7, 2008

CHICAGO -- Henderson Global Investors, the $123.5 billion investment management company, announced that its Manager of Partners (MOP) Program has closed on a joint venture agreement with Valeo Companies, Inc. The partnership represents a $100 million separate account on behalf of a large public pension fund to invest in both for-sale and for-rent housing for students, faculty and staff of the California state university and college systems.

Henderson's Manager of Partners Program combines the specialized, entrepreneurial skills found in real estate operating companies with the discipline and structure of institutional investors. The MOP Program focuses on programmatic joint venture investment with local real estate operators that possess a durable competitive advantage. Henderson utilizes a stringent qualitative and quantitative due diligence process to underwrite each prospective partner. To date Henderson's MOP program has raised $600M in commitments from institutional investors for a variety of programmatic joint ventures around the country.

"We're delighted to announce the closing of this joint venture," said Charles H. Wurtzebach, Ph.D., Managing Director, North America, and Property CIO. "We firmly believe the university real estate market in the U.S. continues to offer significant advantages to investors looking for the portfolio diversification and value-added returns that property investments of this caliber can provide."

About Henderson Global Investors

Henderson Global Investors is an investment management company, providing a wide range of investment products and services to institutions and individuals in Asia, Europe and North America. Henderson manages over $123.5 billion (as of June 30, 2007) in assets and employs approximately 980 people worldwide.

About Henderson's Property Team

Henderson Global Investors has been managing property investments for more than four decades and has over $24 billion in direct real estate assets and property securities under management globally (as of June 30, 2007). The property team comprises over 200 employees in offices throughout the world. The institutional property business manages commingled funds, separate accounts and funds of funds offering core, value-added and opportunistic returns. Henderson invests in property across all commercial sectors, as well as managing funds with sector specialist and/or regional themes.

This press release may include information that could constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such forward-looking statements may involve risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results encompassed within the forward-looking statements. The information provided in this report is for educational and illustrative purposes only and should not be constructed as giving investment advice.