M&G Investments becomes third fund to suspend trading

M&G Investments has suspended redemptions from its UK property fund, citing Brexit.

The company said redemptions from the M&G Property Portfolio, aimed at retail investors, had risen markedly because of “high levels of uncertainty in the UK commercial property market” since the outcome of the European Union referendum.

Aviva Investors stopped redemptions from its UK property fund less than 24 hours after Standard Life Investments suspended trading in one of its vehicles.

The freezing of M&G’s £4.4bn (€5.2bn) fund, as well as the Aviva Investors Property Trust and SLI UK Real Estate Fund, follows several months of net outflows in the sector.

M&G said redemptions had now reached a point where it could best protect shareholders’ interests through a 28-day temporary trading suspension.

M&G’s fund holds 178 UK commercial properties across the retail, industrial and office sectors.