Evans Randall launches £1 bn fund for credit crunch 'opportunities'

Evans Randall, the UK investment banking and private equity group, has launched a fund to 'swoop' on high-quality commercial real estate assets being sold off by owners due to liquidity issues sparked by the credit crunch.

Evans Randall said the £1 bn (EUR 1. bn) opportunity fund is designed to take advantage of a short-term yield shift in the market.

The fund made its first acquisition this week by buying the Condor House in the City of London for £115 mln. Condor House comprises 10,200 m² of 'highly prestigious' office accommodation. The building is let to a number of institutions, including banking group, Barcap, and law firms Morgan Lewis & Brockius, Shepherd & Wedderburn and Heller Erhman. The purchase price reflected an initial yield of more than 5.3%.

CB Richard Ellis advised Evans Randall on the transaction.

Michael Evans, CEO of Evans Randall, said: 'The formation of the fund puts us in an extremely strong position to take full advantage of the opportunities which I believe we will see in the market over the coming months. We will be directly targeting acquisitions of high-quality buildings, where the owners are seeking to liquidate their assets, before yields shift back to the levels we have become used to. This window of opportunity won’t be open for long: it was key, therefore, that Bank of Scotland, as our debt provider, was able to move quickly in help us to establish this fund.'

'For the moment, the fund will focus predominantly on the UK market, where we perceive the opportunities to be the greatest: However, if we see movements across markets overseas, we will adapt accordingly,' he added.

Since 2005 Evans Randall has acquired about £4 bn of UK and European property investments on behalf of itself and clients. The bank is perhaps best known for the joint acquisition with Germany's IVG of the Gherkin, Swiss Re's headquarters at 30 St Mary Axe in London for £615 mln in February 2007.