Epsicap Explore, the SCPI managed by Epsicap REIM, has completed its fourth acquisition, a retail asset in north-west London acquired for €7.76m excluding transfer costs. The deal follows earlier purchases of a hotel in Preston, a light industrial asset in Aberdeen and a logistics platform in Poland, and it means the SCPI's entire portfolio is now located outside its home market of France, exactly as its strategy set out to achieve.
The property is Epsicap Explore's first retail asset, split across two units totalling 2,867 m², fully let to Asda, one of the UK's leading food retailers, and The Gym Group, a major UK gym operator. Both tenants have called the site home since it was refurbished in 2015, a decade-long relationship that speaks to the resilience of the location, with 8.4 years remaining on the firm lease term.
Positioned in the heart of Harrow's main shopping street, just 30 minutes by public transport from St Pancras station, the asset sits in a densely populated catchment with strong footfall and excellent visibility. For Epsicap REIM, the combination of an everyday essentials retailer and a value gym operator reflects exactly the kind of resilient, needs-based tenant mix that has kept investors interested in UK retail even through a turbulent few years for the sector.
Florian Le Quere, Investment Director and Partner at Epsicap REIM, said: "This acquisition confirms our ability to quickly identify attractive opportunities in key European markets. With this new investment on the outskirts of London, we continue to diversify the Epsicap Explore portfolio across asset types, with a well-located asset and two leading tenants. The UK remains a particularly attractive market, offering good opportunities for long-term value creation."
The transaction lands amid a broader shift in how French SCPIs deploy capital. Savills research shows the UK captured around a third of SCPI cross-border investment in the first quarter of 2025, up from just under a quarter the year before, with French funds allocating close to €2.3bn across Europe outside France last year alone, spread across the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Ireland and Poland. Epsicap Explore's decision to build a portfolio entirely outside France puts it at the front of that wave, and its stated next targets, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Ireland, track closely with where that capital is already heading.
Backed by accelerating fundraising momentum, Epsicap Explore intends to keep widening its geographic footprint across Europe. The transaction was supported by ADS RE as agent, Mishcon de Reya as legal counsel and Jones Hargreaves on technical due diligence. Epsicap REIM, the French independent real estate investment manager behind the SCPI, was launched in 2021 and now has €235m in assets under management, with a portfolio spanning France, Spain, Portugal, the UK and Poland, and further ambitions in Ireland, Germany, Italy and the Benelux.
People mentioned
- Florian Le Quere – Investment Director and Partner, Epsicap REIM
- Richard Wolfryd – agent to Epsicap REIM, ADS RE
- Adrian de Mello – legal counsel to Epsicap REIM, Mishcon de Reya
- Elise Lanteri – legal counsel to Epsicap REIM, Mishcon de Reya
- John Gordon – legal counsel to Epsicap REIM, Mishcon de Reya
- Thomas Symm – technical audit to Epsicap REIM, Jones Hargreaves
- Peter Hargreaves – technical audit to Epsicap REIM, Jones Hargreaves
Companies mentioned
- Epsicap REIM – fund manager of the Epsicap Explore SCPI, acquirer of the asset
- Asda – retail tenant, food retailer
- The Gym Group – retail tenant, gym operator
- ADS RE – agent to Epsicap REIM
- Mishcon de Reya – legal counsel to Epsicap REIM
- Jones Hargreaves – technical audit to Epsicap REIM
