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Principal Real Estate Investors Earns Green Stars for Three Funds
[October 01, 2014]

Principal Real Estate Investors Earns Green Stars for Three Funds


DES MOINES, Iowa --(Business Wire)--

Principal Real Estate Investors, one of the largest institutional real estate managers in the United States, recently received the Green Star designation for three funds from the 2014 Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) survey, including achieving the No. 1 ranking out of 64 "Opportunistic Investment Strategy" funds. Green Star is the highest rank GRESB provides.

GRESB is a science-based benchmark based on an annual survey produced by the GRESB Foundation. Information collected by the foundation discloses material sustainability performance at the portfolio level, such as energy and water consumption, green building and energy certification, sustainability risk assessments, governance and stakeholder engagement.

Nearly 640 property companies and funds - representing 56,000 properties with $2.1 trillion in gross asset value - participated in this year's survey.

"Principal Real Estate Investors' commitment to GRESB and their strong performance, demonstrated by the Green Star status of three of their funds, show their leadership in pursuing environmental, social, and governance best practices on behalf of their clients and investors," said Nils Kok, Executive Director, GRESB.

Principal Real Estate Investors achieved a perfect score on the survey in the Management category. The perfect score is indicative of Principal Real Estate Investors' published philosophy and vision on sustainability called, "Pillars of Responsible Property Investing." This program establishes environmental sustainability guidelines for property managers and joint venture partners that focus on optimizing building performance and reducing energy consumption. The firm was recognized for its objectives, internal reporting and clearly defined management process for sustainability (including having key personnel with responsibility for vision and executive-evel engagement).



"Our commitment to sustainability has long been an important part of our process. We view it as a sign of quality asset management and fiduciary governance, which creates positive financial and environmental outcomes," said Pat Halter, CEO of Principal Real Estate Investors. "It's an honor to once again achieve top tier rankings in the GRESB survey. We believe it helps validate the hard work we do every day on behalf of our clients."

In addition to the GRESB ranking, Commercial Property Executive ranked Principal Real Estate Investors No. 3 on its 2014 Greenest Companies list. It is the third year in a row Principal Real Estate Investors has been ranked in the top three of the publications' annual ranking.


About Principal Real Estate Investors
Principal Real Estate Investors manages or subadvises $52.6 billion in commercial real estate assets1. The firm's real estate capabilities include both public and private equity and debt investment alternatives. Principal Real Estate Investors is the dedicated real estate group of Principal Global Investors, a diversified asset management organization and a member of the Principal Financial Group®.

About Principal Global Investors
Principal Global Investors is a diversified asset management organization and a member of the Principal Financial Group®, with expertise in equities, fixed income and real estate investments, as well as specialized overlay and advisory services. Principal Global Investors manages $328.2 billion in assets2 primarily for retirement plans and other institutional clients3.

About the Principal Financial Group
The Principal Financial Group® (The Principal®)4 is a global investment management leader offering retirement services, insurance solutions and asset management. The Principal offers businesses, individuals and institutional clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement, asset management and insurance through its diverse family of financial services companies. Founded in 1879 and a member of the FORTUNE 500®, the Principal Financial Group has $517.9 billion in assets under management5 and serves some 19.4 million customers worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. Principal Financial Group, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PFG. For more information, visit www.principal.com.

1 As of June 30, 2014.
2 As of June 30, 2014.
3 Principal Global Investors is the asset management arm of the Principal Financial Group ® (The Principal ®) and includes the asset management operations of the following subsidiaries of The Principal: Principal Global Investors, LLC; Principal Real Estate Investors, LLC; Principal Enterprise Capital, LLC; Liongate Capital Management LLP; Spectrum (News - Alert) Asset Management, Inc.; Post Advisory Group, LLC; Columbus Circle Investors; Edge Asset Management, Inc.; Morley Financial Services Inc.; Finisterre Capital, LLP; Origin Asset Management, LLP; Principal Global Investors (Europe) Limited; Principal Global Investors (Singapore) Ltd.; Principal Global Investors (Australia) Ltd.; Principal Global Investors (Japan) Ltd.; Principal Global Investors (Hong Kong) Ltd.; CIMB-Principal Islamic Asset Management Sdn. Bhd.; and the majority owned affiliates of Principal International, Inc. Assets under management includes assets managed by investment professionals of Principal Global Investors under dual employee arrangements with other subsidiaries of The Principal and assets managed in accordance with investment advice provided by Principal Global Investors through the delivery of a model.
4 "The Principal Financial Group" and "The Principal" are registered service marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a member of the Principal Financial Group.
5 As of June 30, 2014.


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