Advantus Capital Management - Real Estate Securities

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Real Estate Securities

		The objective of the Advantus Real Estate Securities Strategy is to seek total return with the goal of building a portfolio of diversified real estate securities that will outperform the Dow Jones Wilshire Real Estate Securities Index with reasonable investment risk and maintain a position consistently in the top half of our peer universe.

Assets Size		$989 million as of June 30, 2007

Investment Philosophy		Advantus uses a bottom-up approach, real estate investing experience, and a network of industry contacts and deal-makers to leverage investment opportunities in all parts of the real estate cycle. Since real estate largely operates in the private markets, informational advantages can create opportunity for outperformance in the portfolio.

Investment Process		Our investment framework seeks to provide consistency and repeatability of returns within a context of risk management. The investment process focuses on the following areas:

1.		Macro Policy We examine economic, demographic, and capital markets data for key information that drive real estate stocks. This step focuses our bottom-up analysis on favored property types and geographic regions.

2.		Data Collection Key to our process is the “hands on” data collection through company and property visits. We also mine financial and geographic databases for key information leading to in-depth analysis of stocks. We maintain a proprietary database of adjusted funds from operations, net asset values, and EBITDA estimates for our universe of companies.

3.		Research and Analysis We review and analyze quantitative information to find companies that qualify for inclusion in the portfolio. Qualitative information, however, differentiates our process as we evaluate management, policies and strategies, financial capacity, property utility, and competitive market conditions for companies. The qualitative process allows us to better understand a company’s businesses and inherent risks.

4.		Stock Selection The process determines valuation on various bases, while focusing on identifying catalysts and tracking key factors that will drive a company’s stock price to our target.

5.		Portfolio Construction and Management We use benchmark and peer analysis to evaluate performance and attribution with the key goal of understanding and managing risk within the portfolios. We also review the portfolio for risk groups based on stylistic influences to understand their impact on performance.

6.		Quality Control and Product Enhancement The process builds in a feedback loop that allows for continual improvement of our process.

		Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Selected Profiles
Joe Betlej, CFA, Vice President and Portfolio Manager. Active in the investment industry since 1984.
Lowell Bolken, CFA, Associate Portfolio Manager. Active in the investment industry since 1989.
Sean O'Connell, CFA, Vice President and Director of Real Estate and Structured Finance Research. Active in the investment industry since 1993.
David Schultz, CFA, Vice President, Real Estate and Structured Finance. Active in the investment industry since 1993.
Jim Ziegler, Vice President, Real Estate and Structured Finance. Active in the investment industry since 1997.

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