UK – Kames Capital has raised £115m (€136m) from three large investors for a new closed-end UK property fund targeting secondary market commercial properties worth £15m or less.
The new fund, called the Kames Active Value Closed-Ended Property Fund, is a version of a similar open-ended fund the firm already runs.
It aims to exploit real estate opportunities outside central London, the asset management firm said.
The fund will follow the open-ended fund's investment strategy.
That original fund has no gearing except for short-term bridging for sales and purchases, and is directly invested in UK commercial property and diversified across sectors, locations, properties and tenants, according to Kames.
It said the open-ended fund had returned 8.5% a year on average since it started in 2009.
The new fund is aiming to return 8-10% a year.
Kames said it has had £115m of investment already, from three large institutional investors.
A spokesman for the company said he could not name the investors, but said one was a local authority pension, and another an institution.
Kames is continuing with the open-ended version of the fund, and investors can still access it, he said.
"However," the spokesman said, "the reason we have launched a closed-ended version is that some investors like to have a finite period for their investment, as this may help with their medium to long-term planning, whilst others may favour the accessibility an open-ended version allows."
Helen Batten will manage the closed-end fund, reporting to Kames property director David Wise.
He said there were still plenty of opportunities in the secondary property market, particularly in the sub-£15m sector.
"It is an area often neglected by large property funds and probably out of reach for the majority of smaller commercial property investors, especially now that debt for such properties is both hard to come by and expensive," he said.
