A new £250m (€281.1m) value-add fund set up by Praxis is expected to close its first acquisition in the coming days.
IPE Real Assets understands that the UK regional property investor, which had its first close in August, received a “significant portion” of the expected £250m capital raise.
Praxis said the fund was backed by both US and European institutions.
Praxis is known as the proprietary investment vehicle for low-key Monaco based property entrepreneur Mark Harrison, but the company has also invested on behalf of a number of private and institutional clients for several years.
Gary Roberts, a managing director at Praxis, said: “Our aim is to deliver opportunistic-type returns without migrating too far up the risk curve, which by and large is what we have achieved, consistently, over the course of the last three decades.”
Praxis said it expects to deploy around £250M over the course of the next 12-18 months.
“We’re focused on trends that will play out over the medium term, hence our recent return to the retail sector. This may appear contrarian, but we think it is essentially oversold, Roberts said.
“Our thesis is that not all retail is bad, but it is certainly being priced that way at present, and we think that represents an opportunity. We acquired a couple of shopping centres last year and the funds’ first acquisition will also be in this sector.”
