UBS Asset Management Achieves Top Results in Inaugural 2015 GRESB Debt Survey

UBS Asset Management's Global Real Estate (GRE) business, which manages two real estate debt funds, are delighted to announce that the funds have ranked 1st and 2nd in the inaugural 2015 GRESB Debt Survey, which measures the sustainability performance of real estate debt funds globally.

The UBS Participating Real Estate Mortgage Fund (UBS-PREMF) in the UK and a debt fund in the US both significantly outperformed their peers, and were the only two funds within the survey to achieve top quadrant performance in GRESB's scoring matrix.

The results follow a strong showing by UBS Asset Management's direct real estate funds in the 2015 GRESB Survey released in September, where nine funds managed by GRE worldwide were awarded "Green Star" status.

Commenting on the funds' performance, David Hirst, Chairman of GRE's Sustainability Workgroup, said: "We are delighted with this result, which reflects our consistent approach to sustainable investing across our GRE platform. By incorporating our responsible property investment policy, our debt funds implement the same rigorous approach to lending decisions as GRE applies to our equity investments."

Thomas Wels, Head of Global Real Estate at UBS Asset Management also noted: "I am delighted with this recognition, especially as sustainability has become one of the most important strategic differentiators globally and forms an important part of our investment management process."

What is GRESB?

GRESB is an industry-driven organization committed to assessing the sustainability performance of real estate portfolios (public, private and direct) around the globe. GRESB is an independent organization not connected to UBS Asset Management's GRE business area. GRESB’s mission is to enhance and protect shareholder value by evaluating and improving sustainability best practices in the global real estate sector. GRESB has grown from an initiative pioneered by three institutional investors with the assistance of Maastricht University into the leading benchmark measuring the sustainable performance of real estate portfolios on a global scale.

The 2015 GRESB Debt Survey

Starting in 2015, GRESB began gathering information regarding the sustainability performance of companies and funds specialising in real estate debt. The GRESB debt survey is designed to create a global benchmark which uses a consistent methodology across different global regions, investment vehicles and property types. The scores of the ten private debt fund participants are based on six key sustainability factors: Management, Policy & Disclosure, Risks, Due Diligence, Monitoring and Opportunities. In comparison, the main GRESB survey released earlier this year has been measuring the sustainability performance of direct real estate funds since 2009.

About UBS Asset Management

UBS Asset Management is a business division of UBS. UBS Asset Management provides a diverse range of traditional, alternative, real estate and infrastructure investment solutions to private clients, financial intermediaries and institutional investors around the globe.

UBS Asset Management is a large scale asset manager with well diversified businesses across regions, capabilities and distribution channels. With invested assets of some USD 695 billion as at 30 June 2015, we offer investment capabilities and investment styles across all major traditional and alternative asset classes. These include equity, fixed income, currency, hedge fund, real estate and infrastructure investment capabilities which can be combined into multi-asset strategies.

Global Real Estate actively manages real estate investments worth USD 69.4 billion in Asia, Europe and the US, as well as across the major real estate sectors, making it one of the largest global real estate investment managers worldwide. Its capabilities are focused on core and value-added strategies but also include other strategies across the risk /return spectrum. Global Real Estate offers direct investment, multimanager funds and real estate securities strategies.

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About UBS

UBS is committed to providing private, institutional and corporate clients worldwide, as well as retail clients in Switzerland, with superior financial advice and solutions while generating attractive and sustainable returns for shareholders. Its strategy centers on its Wealth Management and Wealth Management Americas businesses and its leading universal bank in Switzerland, complemented by its Global Asset Management business and its Investment Bank. These businesses share three key characteristics: they benefit from a strong competitive position in their targeted markets, are capital-efficient, and offer a superior structural growth and profitability outlook. UBS's strategy builds on the strengths of all of its businesses and focuses its efforts on areas in which it excels, while seeking to capitalize on the compelling growth prospects in the businesses and regions in which it operates. Capital strength is the foundation of its success.

UBS is present in all major financial centers worldwide. It has offices in more than 50 countries, with about 35% of its employees working in the Americas, 36% in Switzerland, 17% in the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 12% in Asia Pacific. UBS Group AG employs about 60,000 people around the world. Its shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

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