Aviva Investors, through its long-income UK property fund, has been hired by ACCESS Pool to manage a £250m (€293m) long-lease mandate.
ACCESS Pool – which manages £40bn worth of assets on behalf of UK local government pension scheme (LGPS) – has appointed the Aviva-managed Lime Property Fund which targets cross-sector property investments around the UK that can “provide inflation-linked or fixed rental uplifts, let to tenants on leases of over 15 years”.
Jill Barber, chief distribution officer at Aviva Investors, said: “We are delighted and honoured to partner with ACCESS and for the Lime Property Fund to have been selected by the pool to manage its real estate long income mandate.
“In the twenty years since its inception, Lime has built an enviable track record in delivering low-volatility, inflation-linked returns. We believe this makes it an excellent fit for ACCESS, with assets such as long lease real estate having a key role to play in portfolios.”
Councillor Mark Kemp-Gee, chairman of the ACCESS joint committee, said: “We are pleased to report this appointment and the further establishment of the alternatives offering to the ACCESS authorities.
“This further demonstrates our responsiveness to the needs and ambitions of partner LGPS funds. The demand for alternative income from our partners is likely to increase considering the current environment, so this is an important addition to the ACCESS Pool’s suite of alternative funds.”
In November last year, ACCESS Pool appointed CBRE Investment Management to manage domestic and global real estate mandates. CBRE IM’s appointment marked the first step in the launch of a pooled real estate investment proposition for the ACCESS Pool’s partner funds. It followed the appointment of MJ Hudson early that year as implementation adviser for the pooling of illiquid assets, including private equity, infrastructure, private debt and real estate.
In January this year, ACCESS Pool also said it was seeking social and affordable housing investment managers to manage a UK and regional mandate with an initial size of £125m.
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