Mutual insurer Royal London is opening up a £2.7bn (€3.05bn) UK real estate porftfolio to third-party institutional investors for the first time.
Royal London Asset Management said it had carried out the largest ever property fund launch in the UK, following the creation of the Royal London UK Real Estate Fund.
The fund combines the property assets of two existing Royal London with-profits funds. The assets are spread throughout the UK and across sectors, including industrial, office, retail warehouses and shopping centres.
More than two-thirds of the portfolio is in London and includes assets in New Bond Street, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, Oxford Street and St Paul’s.
The fund is structured as an authorised contractual scheme and is available to investors that can invest at least £50m.
Royal London said: “The immediate access to returns from a property portfolio of this quality, diversification and scale is a unique offering and something that investors would otherwise find difficult to access through one single fund.”
The fund has a number of development projects it is planning to carry out and therefore suits long-term investors, it said.
Drew Watkins is the lead portfolio fund manager for the fund and Stephanie Hacking is the deputy portfolio fund manager.
Piers Hillier, chief investment officer at Royal London Asset Management, said: “This fund launch is a vote of confidence in the UK and its real estate market.
“There are few places in the world with as many prime real estate assets as London, and we believe its property market presents an attractive opportunity for domestic and foreign institutional investors.
“The long-term outlook for UK property remains attractive and the prime nature of this offering provides an excellent opportunity for long-term investors to gain exposure to a high quality and well diversified property portfolio.”
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