Ashburton Investments has raised an initial $250m (€227m) for RMB Westport Real Estate Development Fund II.
Eight of the company’s offshore and South African institutional clients backed the fund, which has a $450m target.
Westport II, RMB Westport’s second African real estate focused fund, is investing in real estate developments in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on the commercial, retail and industrial sectors in Nigeria, Ghana, Angola and the Ivory Coast.
RMB Westport’s first fund, which closed in 2012, is now fully invested in 11 projects, five of which have been completed.
Simon Fifield, chief executive at RMB Westport, said there had been a “number of macro-economic headwinds” in territories in which the company operates.
“Strong long-term growth prospects, coupled with favourable demographics, and the pleasing trends of increasing urbanisation and consumer spending, have all led to high demand for retail, industrial and commercial property space,” he said.
The first close follows RMB Westport’s recent exit of the Ikeja City Mall, which it bought for its first fund and sold to South African institutional investors.
