Evans Randall, Bank of Scotland team up in EUR 1b fund JV

UK investment bank and private equity group Evans Randall said it has created a 50-50 joint venture with the Bank of Scotland to expand its Luxembourg-based European Property Fund. In addition to subscribing for 50% of the equity in the fund, which has a target value of EUR 1bn, Evans Randall said Bank of Scotland would provide senior and junior debt funding for the fund. The fund will also have the flexibility to raise debt funding from other sources for specific properties.

The new investment vehicle already owns three properties: the building known as The Rock at South Axis, Amsterdam, a 29,000 m² development with a 10-year pre-let to Dutch law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek; the Telekom Centre Munich, a 69,000 m² cluster of six towers let for a 12-year period to a Deutsche Telekom subsidiary; and the newly completed 70,000 m² Covent Garden office complex in Brussels, with a 15-year anchor tenancy from the European Commission.

The fund has an average net acquisition yield exceeding 5%. It is seeking to acquire further high-quality well-let commercial property assets in Western Europe before it is fully invested to its EUR 1bn target.

'We are continuing to pursue our strategy of concentrating on premium commercial real estate which is well located and let to strong tenants on long leases,' Evans Randall managing director Kent Gardner said in a statement. 'We feel that such a strategy offers both short-term security and long-term growth. The present market is offering some interesting opportunities to acquire such assets at attractive prices. We are seeking to benefit from this situation, notably with the establishment of this European Property Fund and the recent formation of a UK opportunity fund which has been acquiring assets in Central London.'