Deutsche Bank has provided Mansion Group with a crucial refinancing as it works to reopen its £458m student accommodation fund.
The bank has provided more than £100m to the Mansion Student Accommodation Fund, which was gated in October last year following growing demand for redemptions from investors.
The refinancing has been provided to the open-ended vehicle, which at 31 August 2013 had a net asset value of £282m and owned 5,770 beds in 11 UK cities valued at around £458m.
A letter from investment manager Active Fund Services to shareholders on 7 February confirmed the refinancing, although it did not reveal any of the lender’s details.
It said: “The board of the fund have finalised a significant refinancing package for MSAF and the feeder funds.
“This we hope will give shareholders confidence that we are making good progress towards being able to remove the suspension from the fund and recommence dealing.”
The refinancing is one of the firm’s three strategic steps aimed at restoring liquidity to the vehicle, which it launched in 2009.
In January, the firm met its first target of altering the legal mechanism for gating the fund, which was agreed at an extraordinary general meeting.
Two of the key alterations were to define share subscription and redemption days, and
to lower the redemption limit
on the appropriate day from 10% to 2%.
Active Group said this was in order “to provide the directors and the manager with the ability to better manage the redemptions process and to potentially prevent them from needing to suspend redemptions outright, particularly where the level of redemptions is high”.
It now plans to go ahead with the third part of its strategy by continuing “the process of selling assets to restore liquidity to the necessary levels”.
All parties declined to comment.
Bridget.oconnell@estatesgazette.com
