UK - Climate Change Capital (CCC), the investment manager and adviser specialising in sustainable investments, has made the first purchase for its property fund.
The Fund, which first closed to investors last October with £50m (€55m) in assets, has purchased 5 St. Philip's Place in Birmingham from New Star Asset Management for £30.3m (€34m).
"The intention is to manage this prestigious building in a sustainable way and we look forward to working with occupiers, to improve the sustainability credentials of this building and indeed all our future assets," said Tim Mockett, joint managing director of the property team.
"Retro fitting existing buildings within a sensible timeframe is a vital part of creating a low carbon economy," he added.
The six-storey building is located in Birmingham's central business district and is made up of 67,000sq ft of offices and 13,000sq ft of retail space.
CCC will work with the building's existing tenants, which include the Department for Communities and Local Government, HSBC and Marks & Spencer's, to access the building's current rating by BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) standards and make it more energy-efficient.
The investment manager said the fund would take advantage of the current market and focus on investing in large, commercial properties that can be made more sustainable, and plans to invest up to half of the fund in property in the South-east of England.
"Deploying capital at this stage of the cycle underpins value with the opportunity to produce enhanced returns through proactively managing the risks associated with climate change," said Esme Lowe, fellow joint managing director of the property team.
"We are actively reviewing a number of opportunities and anticipate further acquisitions in line with our investment strategy."
CCC's aim is to develop and manage funds which invest in projects, companies and technologies offering services to help ease climate change. The five alternative asset classes it focuses on are carbon infrastructure, property, private equity, listed equities and land and water.
Climate Change Capital had $1.6bn (€1.27bn) in assets under management at 1 October 2008.
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