Merseyside Pension Fund is among investors to back Barwood Capital’s latest UK real estate fund which is planning to raise up to £150m (€169.3m).
Barwood said it has raised £48m of equity for its Regional Property Growth Fund IV, putting it on track to achieve its target of £100m, with a hard cap at £150m.
Investors include high net worth individuals, family offices and Merseyside Pension Fund.
A number of other investors are currently going through due diligence and further closes are expected in the fourth quarter of the year and the first quarter of next year, the manager said.
Barwood said an industrial development opportunity in Sittingbourne, Kent has already been secured and further investments in the industrial and care home sectors, are under offer.
The five-year closed-ended fund, launched earlier this year, will invest in UK regional industrial, alternatives, selective offices and real estate opportunities benefitting from improved infrastructure investment.
Growth Fund IV will target an internal rate of return of 13-15% per annum.
Jo Greenslade, founder and director of strategy and funding at Barwood Capital, said: “Given the difficult political environment, we are delighted to have successfully achieved almost half our target raise within a few months of launching our new fund.
“Over 90% of the investors in Growth Fund IV have invested in previous Barwood Capital property funds and their willingness to reinvest in our fifth property fund demonstrates their confidence in our strategy, people and pipeline and ultimately in our ability to deliver outstanding returns.”
Hugh Elrington, managing director at Barwood Capital, said the investment strategy wa to acquire sites, underperforming or obsolete property assets across the UK regions which have the potential for significant value to be added through planning, development and active asset management.
“We will focus on growing sectors and exploit the arbitrage between the value of undermanaged secondary investments and prime income-producing investments,” he said. “We take a diversified portfolio approach, ensuring a spread of locations, sectors, development stages and income profiles.
“To have one project exchanged and two further under offer, demonstrates that already we have an identified and clear pipeline of opportunities in which to invest.”
