Yoo Capital Investment Management is halfway to raising £400m (€455m) for its Central London-centric real estate fund.

The real estate investment firm said its Yoo Capital Fund II (YCFII) fund now has £200m in new capital to deploy at first close, after receiving the capital commitments from institutional investors from across six continents.

YCFII – the first in a series of funds launched by a partnership between Yoo Capital and Astarte Capital Partners – targets mixed-use, leisure, healthcare and life sciences real estate assets, predominantly in Central London.

John Hitchcox, chairman of Yoo Group, said: “It is particularly exciting that we at Yoo Capital, with our own talented team of private equity, development and asset management professionals, are now steering an exciting new course of discretionary fund management.

“YCFII will enable Yoo Capital to bring further substantial capital to key projects in Central London and other major cities. Having invested in over £2 billion of UK assets over the last 10 years, we are committed to creating new opportunities, transformative assets, and providing economic stability in this critical period for the real estate sector.”

Stavros Siokos, managing partner at Astarte Capital, said: “As global asset managers specialising in real assets, Astarte Capital has deep sector expertise in investing across multiple economic cycles.

”Notwithstanding today’s volatile market conditions, we will leverage our experience to realise the significant opportunities for well-capitalised and talented managers like Yoo Capital.”

Lloyd Lee, managing partner at Yoo Capital and chair of the investment committee, said: “We have received tremendous support from our partners at Astarte Capital and our global investors, who recognise our firm’s track record in both placemaking and dealmaking as well as our ability to act as a stabilising capital force in this period of unprecedented market volatility.”