The 419-million Henderson Indirect Property Fund Europe (HIP) has made its first investment (via secondary trades) into the UK property market with the acquisition of units in two high quality funds for the total sum of 23.5 million. A total of 11.7 million has been placed in the Standard Life Core UK Shopping Centre Trust and 11.8 million in the Unite UK Student Accommodation Fund.
The impact on the HIP portfolio will be:
Immediately performance enhancing at an income level with capital growth in the short to medium term
Increased diversification within Europe (UK: 5.4%)
Enhanced liquidity (Unite Fund is open-ended)
Favorable euro/sterling currency entry point
Cash weighting reduced from 15% to 8%
Lowering risk profile of portfolio.
Nick Evans, Fund Manager for HIP comments: "HIP provides our investors with access to a diversified portfolio of best in class managers, with strategic entry and exit in European markets at optimal market cycles.
"Utilizing our open ended structure allows us to maximize returns by enabling us to be opportunity driven and react quickly to the latest market trends and dynamics on an ongoing basis.
"These latest investments represent our current views on the UK market for which we are forecasting solid index linked income returns in the student accommodation sector and defensive income streams via prime, dominant shopping centers."
The Fund, one of the largest 'Fund of Funds' in the market, has recently received an 8.25-million equity subscription from a new investor a UK pension fund. It has an eventual target size of 1 billion.
Source: Henderson Global Investors
