Entrepreneurs Faisal Butt and James Caan are backing a new UK real estate investment company.
QuoinStone Investment Management, which plans to target value-add assets, aims to build a £1bn (€1.1bn) real estate portfolio across the UK.
The company will initially look to invest in multi-let assets, particularly targeting office markets that have become undersupplied due to residential conversions.
QuoinStone IM has already secured its first mandate to manage the £100m-plus Telephone House in Shoreditch and is looking to attract further investment from both domestic and overseas Asian, Middle Eastern and emerging-market investors.
Spire Ventures, an investment management vehicle set up by Butt, has joined with a fellow entrepreneur to back the newly launched company.
QuoinStone is led by founders Tim Struth and Steve Howling.
Struth advised on development and regeneration projects while at Savills before launching his own private property company SB2 Property Ventures.
Howling had a background at Savills and CBRE Investors, before joining Fidelity International.
“Given our broader experience and success with 90 North and a range of other real estate businesses, we are well-positioned to help Tim and Steve achieve their ambition to build a world-class business and invest £1bn of capital in the next few years,” Butt said.
QuoinStone believes that with many investors switching to lower-risk, core and long-income strategies due to doubts over Brexit, there is less competition for property stock in the value-add arena, providing better value for buyers.
Consolidation among larger fund managers has also led to less choice of manager for investors looking for alternative property investment solutions, it said, providing a good opening for a new entrant to the market.
