TIAA Henderson Real Estate has restructued and extended the life of its £1.1bn (€1.4bn) UK Retail Warehouse Fund, as a result of investor discussions.

The fund, due to expire in December next year, will now run until December 2021.

It will also establish an investor advisory committee, while management fees will now be based on the fund’s net asset value rather than gross asset value.

The fund will also be able to raise up to an additional 10% of equity every year, while an ‘in-specie’ allowance will enable the issuing of new units in exchange for retail assets.

Around 70 UK and European unit holders, including Legal & General, and the multi-manager arms of Schroder Property and CBRE Global Investors, elected for the changes.

According to Dan Batterton, Legal & General Property head of product development, TH Real Estate “ensured that the unit holders met independently in order to allow open debate”.

“To achieve consensus across such a diverse investor base is not a straight-forward task,” he added.

“Fund extension votes are an opportunity for the manager to embrace best practice; unit holders are often best placed to recommend changes as they have sight of many different vehicles and managers in the market.”

The move comes a year after Legal & General extended the life of its Industrial Property Investment Fund and implemented similar changes following an investor consultation.

A new redemption window was offered to investors until June next year. TH Real Estate said the window had been closed with no requests received.

Graeme Rutter, head of property multi-manager at Schroders, said the company was a long-term supporter of the retail warehouse sector and the fund.

”In principle, we were supportive of a fund extension from the outset and were pleased that the manager took the opportunity to engage with investors to ensure that the new terms reflected industry best practice,” he said.

The fund, which has 16 assets, recently bought an additional stake in Ashford Retail Park, as well as selling its Blackwater Shopping Park in Farnborough.

TH Real Estate said the fund has posted a five-year total annual return of 17.6%, against a benchmark 12.2%. 

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