ING Real Estate takes over $772 mln Asia fund

SINGAPORE, June 1 (Reuters) - Dutch financial group ING's (ING.AS) real estate arm said on Monday it had taken control of a $772 million real estate fund from a Japanese manager, boosting its Asian assets by nearly 20 percent.

The closed-end New City Asia Opportunity Fund, which owns mostly Chinese, Japanese and South Korean assets, will be renamed the Phoenix Real Estate Fund, ING Real Estate Investment said in a statement.

With the takeover, ING Real Estate's assets under management in Asia will rise to $4.97 billion from around $4.2 billion.

The New City Asia fund was previously managed by Tokyo-based New City Corp. (Reporting by Kevin Lim; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)