Fund managers bet on high-end malls in US

New York

EVEN as the rise of online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc leads analysts to predict the eventual death of the American shopping mall, real estate fund managers are betting that some will prosper - if they can lure the right kind of consumer.

Simon Property Group Inc, the largest high-end mall operator in the country with properties including Palo Alto, California's Stanford Shopping Center and suburban Philadelphia's King of Prussia Mall is the top holding in 53 of the 71 US real estate funds tracked by Lipper. The average real estate fund devotes 8.8 per cent of its portfolio to Simon, a bigger average bet than the 7.6 per cent that tech funds invest in Apple Inc and almost one percentage point more than the weight of Simon in the benchmark S&P US Reit index.