The fund, which is available to both retail and institutional investors, is the first open-ended UK property vehicle offered by F&C REIT and managed by Julian Smith and Guy Glover.
This was launched in June 2010 as an opportunity to buy into a ‘clean' portfolio of direct UK commercial properties. F&C REIT intentionally opted to start with cash, with a view to growing the assets steadily over time in a sustainable manner, rather than launch with legacy property seeding.
This has allowed the co-managers to take advantage of opportunities in the prevailing property market conditions.
Julian Smith, fund director, commented: "By virtue of our position as cash investors, and leveraging off F&C REIT's size, contacts and ability to source attractively priced stock, we have been able to create a portfolio that we believe is ideally positioned to provide resilient income returns to investors.
“We have always maintained the importance of diversification and have gradually acquired assets in the retail, office, leisure and industrial sectors. Geographic diversification is equally important, with properties held across a range of UK locations from Chichester in the south to Edinburgh in the north."
F&C REIT's industry contacts give it the ability to source stock both on and off market and across the investment cycle, taking advantage of the opportunities available to cash investors. The managers have used fresh inflows to add to the portfolio, having recently completed on acquisitions totalling £15m across the office, retail and industrial sectors buying in Bristol, Chelmsford and Coventry.
Properties will continue to be incrementally added to the fund as the AUM grows, with Smith and Glover maintaining their focus on quality assets which they believe offer both secure rental growth and asset management opportunities, ranging from high-street retail and industrial properties, to regional and Central London office space.
