SG Private Banking, the wealth management arm of Société Générale, is putting together a unit to develop global real estate investment products, according to a Reuters report.

Pierre Baer, chief executive of SG Private Bank in Singapore and South Asia, is reported to have said that the new unit will start offering investments in the third quarter of the year, and will have staff in both Singapore and London. Mr Baer declined to comment on the exact number of hires SG Private Banking intends to make for the new unit.

In December, SG Private Banking appointed Xavier Denis as economist and strategist, bolstering the investment team headed by Hervé Plista, the firm’s global chief investment officer.

In the same month a team of private bankers was appointed to serve ultra high net worth clients in Greece.

Mr Baer also said that SG Private Banking’s assets under management had suffered a “double-digit” decline, due to investment losses by clients, but declined to give exact figures, according to the newswire.

At 30 September 2008 SG Private Banking had assets under management of €73 billion ($92.5 billion), employing over 2,900 staff in 26 countries.