Legal & General Investment Management Real Assets (LGIM Real Assets) is partnering with Aston Martin on the development of the company’s new manufacturing facility in South Wales.
LGIM Real Assets has agreed a long-term commitment to the manufacturing facility, which in turn supports Legal & General Retirement in its payment of pensioner incomes. The transaction volume was not disclosed.
'This high quality Aston Martin facility will create hundreds of new jobs and support UK manufacturing, and with our long-term backing it will also help to pay our customers’ pensions. It is the latest example of our commitment to real asset investments which deliver good quality long-term income and play a meaningful role to the UK economy,' commented Kerrigan Procter, managing director of Legal & General Retirement.
The facility will be used to manufacture the British luxury car maker’s new SUV from 2019, on a 67 acre plot located 20 miles west of Cardiff. A former Ministry of Defence (MoD) site, fit-out commences in late 2017 and plans include a VIP visitor experience.
'To have completed this deal with Aston Martin and the Welsh Government is a testament to our investment strategy for the Annuity Portfolio, where we aim to acquire long let assets with investment grade covenants. This deal is also an example of how working with local and national Governments can take these projects off the ground, creating hundreds of jobs for the local area and set to benefit from further investment,' said Tom Roberts of LGIM Real Assets.
In the past year, LGIM Real Assets has secured real asset investments across a range of infrastructure and property transactions for Legal & General Retirement, including the UK’s first new port in over two decades, a fleet of new trains, student accommodation and a university campus.
Legal & General has already committed to Cardiff’s Central Square as part of a planned £400 mln regeneration in the city centre. Legal & General also employs around 1,400 people in its offices within the Welsh capital.
