GLOBAL - Kennedy Wilson has won a follow-on mandate from Fairfax Financial Holdings to invest €250m in European real estate having a completed a similar investment programme in the US.

The California-based investment manager will co-invest an extra 10% and will target both equity and debt investments, initially in the UK and Ireland.

Fairfax, a Toronto-based insurance and investment management firm, will review and approve all potential investments, although Kennedy Wilson said it would "play the lead role in sourcing, negotiating and executing" investments and would hold "responsibility for due diligence, financing, property management, asset management and disposition".

Kennedy Wilson has finished investing $278m (€213m) in the US real estate markets on behalf of Fairfax, and the success of this venture was instrumental in the new mandate.

Prem Watsa, chairman and CEO at Fairfax said: "We are pleased with our US commercial real estate partnership with Kennedy Wilson and look forward to investing in European assets through this new platform."

Kennedy Wilson has completed $3.7bn of real estate deals in the UK and Ireland to date, including the $1.8bn acquisition of a real estate loan portfolio from Bank of Ireland in 2011, which enabled it to establish the Kennedy Wilson Europe subsidiary.

William McMorrow, chairman and CEO at Kennedy Wilson, said: "We are excited to continue our relationship with Fairfax overseas and to pursue additional opportunities in Europe."

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