Grosvenor Fund Management (GFM) has acquired a retail property on London's Kensington High Street on behalf of its €400 mln Urban Retail V joint venture with an unnamed Canadian investor.

Grosvenor Fund Management (GFM) has acquired a retail property on London's Kensington High Street on behalf of its €400 mln Urban Retail V joint venture with an unnamed Canadian investor.

which comprises four prime retail units, from Lum Chang,
the freehold of 42-60

The acquisition, believed to be worth £50 mln (€68 mln), is the first for the Urban Retail V fund, which was launched in October 2014. The vendor was Malaysian property developer Lum Chang.

Situated at 42-60 Kensington High Street in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the property comprises four retail units currently let to Uniqlo, Zara, Topshop and Miss Sixty. It provides a total of 88,000 sq ft (8,200 m2) of retail, office and residential accommodation with the retail element comprising the bulk at just under 51,000 sq ft.

The residential and office accommodation elements have been sold separately on long leases.

GFM was advised on the transaction by JLL, law firm Clifford Chance in London and Walkers in Jersey.

Urban Retail V is GFM's fifth high street retail investment vehicle and focuses on core cities in the UK, France, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Italy and Spain. The vehicle is capitalised by The Grosvenor Group and one of GFM’s existing Canadian investors, giving it initial firepower of around €400 mln.

GFM currently has £3.2 bn of assets under management in Europe.