Aviva Investors and PSP acquire Hoxton Campus in London’s tech hub

Aviva Investors and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) have made their fifth joint-venture investment since 2015, acquiring an office complex in London.

Hoxton Campus, which consists of four offices in Hoxton Square, Shoreditch, has 5,200sqm of lettable space within London’s so-called Tech City cluster.

It is the fifth joint investment by the two organisations since Canadian pension fund manager PSP Investments bought a 50% stake in a London office portfolio owned by Aviva Life & Pensions UK six years ago.

Last year, they carried out their fourth deal, acquiring Galleri K, a mixed-use asset in Copenhagen.

Daniel McHugh, CIO for real assets at Aviva Investors, said: “Our partnership with PSP Investments continues to go from strength to strength and we are delighted to expand the relationship further into an exciting and dynamic subset of the London market.

“London continues to represent the richest market of workers employed in knowledge-intensive sectors, with the tech cluster being of significant scale and importance in the global market.”

Stéphane Jalbert, managing director for real estate investments in Europe and Asia-Pacific at PSP Investments, said: “Building on our existing partnership with Aviva Investors, PSP Investments is continuing its strategy of investing in dynamic markets while ensuring best-in-class sustainability standards.

“Hoxton is one of the most creative hubs in London, as well as an important centre of technology which we believe will outperform in the long term.”

George Fraser-Harding, fund manager at Aviva Investors, said: “Despite the challenging environment faced over the last 12 months, we expect London to be a stand-out performer relative to other global knowledge hubs, given its talent pool, connectivity, corporate clusters and scalability.

“This particular sub-market should fair especially well with a dynamic occupier base beginning to return to offices. These buildings are well-located and offer the quality and character of space that we’re seeing significant demand from tenants for, positioning them well to deliver long-term growth and, ultimately, positive performance within our portfolio.”