ARA Asset Management (Fortune), the manager of Fortune Real Estate Investment Trust (Fortune REIT), says it is seeking a dual primary listing of Fortune REIT’s units on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK) by way of introduction.

ARA Asset Management believes that the proposed Introduction would enable Fortune REIT to gain direct access to Hong Kong’s capital market and benefit from exposure to a wider range of private and institutional unitholders, given that Hong Kong is a natural market for Fortune REIT since all of its real estate assets are located in Hong Kong and the trading currency of the units is in Hong Kong dollars.

“We want to bring Fortune REIT back to its natural home and we are delighted to make progress on this pioneer move. We believe this is also the longstanding wishes of a number of our investors. The dual primary listing of the Units in Hong Kong is important for Fortune REIT’s long term growth and development and is in line with Fortune REIT’s focus on its current business operations of managing retail properties in Hong Kong.” says Justin Chiu, chairman of ARASL.

Fortune REIT holds a portfolio of fourteen retail properties in Hong Kong, spread across Kowloon and the New Territories, through the ownership of property companies, worth HK$11.5 billion ($2.09 billion) as at 31 December 2009.