JR Capital and Chancerygate have raised an initial £40m (€45.2m) for a second UK logistics fund and acquired an asset for the vehicle.

The fund’s first close was backed by JR Capital’s Middle East-based private and institutional client base, giving Chancerygate an initial £80m to deploy.

Chancerygate and JR Capital have co-invested in the fund which seeks to invest in income-producing multi-let UK urban logistics assets.

The five-year life fund expects to target industrial, warehousing and urban logistics assets worth between £5m to £15m.

JR Capital and Chancerygate’s first fund, which totalled £100m, secured 18 assets over a two-year period.

The second fund has so far invested £7.4m to acquire Port Road Business Park in Carlisle, park comprising 20 units totalling 108,000sqft.

JR Capital CEO, John Collier-Wright, said: “We are pleased to have closed our second fund with Chancerygate. We remain bullish on the small-box multi-let sector due to the strength of the occupier market and robust fundamentals.

“We have witnessed first-hand on our previous fund the significant supply demand in-balance, which has allowed us to maintain close to 100% occupancy and increase rents by an average of over 25%.

“The recent volatility in the investment markets has created good buying opportunities for investors like us that are well-capitalised and can transact quickly in cash. We try to be active and buy whilst others are selling or sitting on the side lines.”

Chancerygate managing director, Richard Bains, said: “The success of the first fund underpinned a period of significant growth for our asset management team. We now manage around £385m of assets across more than five million sqft of commercial space in over 480 units.

“This latest fund provides us with even more firepower that the first. It shows there is ongoing demand from a myriad of entities and jurisdictions for UK logistics property of all types. 

“Investors see past short-term challenges and can perceive longer term prospects with an asset class they regard as particularly resilient.”

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