Soros joins forces with new Reichmann venture

NEW YORK - George Soros, the money manager best known for speculating profitably during last year's British currency crisis, confirmed yesterday that he is the principal investor in the international property fund that has emerged from the ashes of Olympia & York, writes Larry Black.

A Canadian bankruptcy court approved the orderly liquidation of the global developer last Friday, freeing its head, Paul Reichmann, to manage the new fund. As disclosed last month by the Toronto financier Andrew Sarlos, the dollars 500m property fund would invest in distressed commercial property and in new business centres in Eastern Europe - a special interest of the Hungarian-born Mr Soros.

The Quantum Realty Fund, which is expected to begin operations next month, is intended to profit from the slump in the world property market that led to the collapse last May of O&Y's plans for Canary Wharf in London. Huge losses in the Docklands development caused O&Y to default on more than dollars 20bn worth of loans, forcing its Canadian parent into bankruptcy.

Mr Soros said the Canary Wharf disaster 'has taught all investors important lessons which we intend to apply'.