A new UK property investment firm set up by Martin Jepson, the former president and COO of Brookfield Property Partners, and Christopher Cope, the former founding partner of Grafton Advisors, has agreed a £300m (€342.9m) partnership with NFU Mutual.
Ergo Real Estate, which was established last month, will work with partners, focusing on value-add investment and development opportunities in London and the major cities and conurbations of the UK.
Ergo said it has agreed to set up the Aver Property partnership with insurer NFU to invest £300m in value-add and opportunistic acquisitions.
The partnership has made its first deal with the acquisition of 2 Brindleyplace, a 78,000sqft office building on the Brindleyplace estate in Birmingham. The building was acquired from Hansainvest for £29.3m.
Aver will target investments in the London conurbation, the south-east of England and other major UK conurbations. Individual investments are expected to range between £10m and £50m.
Jepson said: “Chris and I have known each other for many years and admired each other’s projects as rivals.
”We decided it would be an opportune time for us to work together, delivering creative solutions to add value to properties.”
Cope, said: “We believe there will be demand for our skill set in today’s challenging market. Although we are best known for our work in London – Martin in the City and me in the West End – our knowledge and expertise are transferable to the major conurbations of the UK, where we see significant value-add opportunities.”
Richard Topps, the group head of property at NFU Mutual, said: “Our new joint venture with Ergo provides us with a very exciting opportunity at this point in the property cycle to add further diversification into our property funds through exposure to different types of assets and through managers with an undoubted track record and different expertise and experience.”
