Last month, the company entered the international market with its newest fund initial public offering, Cohen & Steers Worldwide Realty Income Fund Inc. Officials expected to raise a total of approximately $300 million in assets. According to John McCombe, executive vice president and director of sales and marketing for the company this is the firm's first international real estate securities offering.

Martin Cohen, co-chairman and co-chief executive officer of the company, says the firm believes the international market for real estate securities has significant growth potential. "In our view, the international market today is similar to the US market in the early 1990's, when US REITs were beginning their strong growth phase."

Robert Steers, co-chairman and co-chief executive officer, adds, "Europe and certain Asia-Pacific markets are moving quickly to adopt REIT-like structures, creating new investment opportunities around the world." Steers notes that the universe of public real estate companies outside the US is larger than the US market, providing a potentially wider breadth of investment opportunities to investors.

The fund is subadvised by Houlihan Rovers SA, a Belgium-based real estate securities investment manager in which Cohen & Steers owns 50% of the capital stock. As of March 31, 2004, Houlihan Rovers had nearly $800 million in global real estate securities under management.