Lend Lease seeks more partners for £500m fund
Feeder funds to be launched to finance growing retail partnership
Jane Roberts
Lend Lease is to launch two more funds to top up its £500m limited partnership after raising only £400m of equity.
The Lend Lease Retail Partnership will own 25% of the £1.12bn Bluewater shopping centre in Dartford together with the £200m Touchwood Court shopping development in Solihull, assets which total £500bn. Ian Cockburn, Lend Lease fund manager, said: “We are hoping to launch this main fund next week.”
Cockburn declined to confirm that the total sum raised by the fund is £400m, but said the figure is lower than the original £500m target and that the balance would initially be debt.
“We will reduce the debt through one or more feeder funds, and possibly by bringing in some more larger investors,” he added. He said that it was likely that two feeder funds would be marketed shortly: one will be, like the main Retail Partnership, an onshore tax-transparent limited partnership aimed at institutions, but with the chance to take small stakes; the other will be an offshore fund.
“We’ve always wanted a feeder fund because it brings more liquidity,” Cockburn said. Up to 30 more funds could invest, he said, and stakes could be as low as £1m, while an offshore fund would bring in taxpaying private and overseas investors. There are also some funds interested in taking larger stakes. These funds, for various reasons, opted not to go into the main fund.
Lend Lease is expected to announce next week that 10 funds have signed up to the Retail Partnership, taking stakes of between the minimum investment of £25m and £100m.
The participating funds are: Equitable Life, Norwich Union, Barclays Property Investment, British Airways, Guardian, NPI, Church Commissioners, Clerical Medical, Shell and United Friendly.
Equity Partnerships and DTZ are advising Lend Lease.
- The BAA/McArthurGlen Fashion Outlet Partnership, which bought 75% of Cheshire Oaks last year, has bid for two more BAA/McArthurGlen schemes.
Viewpoint, p64
Feeder funds to be launched to finance growing retail partnership
Jane Roberts
Lend Lease is to launch two more funds to top up its £500m limited partnership after raising only £400m of equity.
The Lend Lease Retail Partnership will own 25% of the £1.12bn Bluewater shopping centre in Dartford together with the £200m Touchwood Court shopping development in Solihull, assets which total £500bn. Ian Cockburn, Lend Lease fund manager, said: “We are hoping to launch this main fund next week.”
Cockburn declined to confirm that the total sum raised by the fund is £400m, but said the figure is lower than the original £500m target and that the balance would initially be debt.
“We will reduce the debt through one or more feeder funds, and possibly by bringing in some more larger investors,” he added. He said that it was likely that two feeder funds would be marketed shortly: one will be, like the main Retail Partnership, an onshore tax-transparent limited partnership aimed at institutions, but with the chance to take small stakes; the other will be an offshore fund.
“We’ve always wanted a feeder fund because it brings more liquidity,” Cockburn said. Up to 30 more funds could invest, he said, and stakes could be as low as £1m, while an offshore fund would bring in taxpaying private and overseas investors. There are also some funds interested in taking larger stakes. These funds, for various reasons, opted not to go into the main fund.
Lend Lease is expected to announce next week that 10 funds have signed up to the Retail Partnership, taking stakes of between the minimum investment of £25m and £100m.
The participating funds are: Equitable Life, Norwich Union, Barclays Property Investment, British Airways, Guardian, NPI, Church Commissioners, Clerical Medical, Shell and United Friendly.
Equity Partnerships and DTZ are advising Lend Lease.
The BAA/McArthurGlen Fashion Outlet Partnership, which bought 75% of Cheshire Oaks last year, has bid for two more BAA/McArthurGlen schemes.
Viewpoint, p64
