Primary Health Properties founder Harry Hyman’s Nexus Group has teamed up with investment manager Nevastar Finance to launch Pine II, a second fund focusing on properties leased to educational providers.
The pair have raised £24.3m of equity at the first close of the fund. The fund manager will use this, along with leverage, to assemble a portfolio of around £50m. A further closing is planned for later in the year.
Pine II focuses on buying real estate properties occupied by early years operators, special needs schools and other educational establishments.
Hyman (pictured) said: “My prior experience with the Pine I fund has given me an appreciation of the qualities of this asset class, and my aspiration is to create a specialist educational real estate vehicle which one day might be listed as a REIT.”
Stan Rotman, chief executive of Nevastar Finance, said: “We have successfully invested in Ireland, Germany and Greece, and we believe the time has come to invest in quality real estate in the UK.”
The fund has a similar mandate to Pine I, which Nexus Group managed with backing from Electra Private Equity. It was sold for £95m to the Universities Superannuation Scheme in 2017.
Financial adviser Ian Griffiths has rejoined the Nexus team on the Pine II fund, having previously worked with Hyman on Pine I.
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