Bridges Ventures has announced an early closure of its Bridges Property Alternatives Fund III after strong interest from European and US institutions. The company says it will apply gearing to its closing £212m commitment to give it a potential investment capacity of more than £500m.
The property fund attracted major support from leading institutional investors on both sides of the Atlantic, with around 80 per cent of the capital coming from UK and US pension funds. Greater Manchester, Merseyside and South Yorkshire were among the biggest local authority pension funds subscribers.
“We are hugely grateful for the support we have had from both new and repeat investors for this fund,” said Simon Ringer, a partner and head of property funds at Bridges Ventures. “We believe this a strong endorsement of our impact-led strategy, which we have shown can deliver compelling investment returns alongside positive and lasting social impact.”
Bridges specialises in using sustainability and social impact as a way to identify investments with the potential to drive financial value along with social and environmental improvements.
Its Alternative Fund will targeted property and property-backed businesses, concentrating on regeneration areas, buildings showing environmental leadership, and niche sectors under pressure from changing demographics and consumer needs.
Since its first close on over £120 million in April 2014, the Fund has completed six deals including the £85 million acquisition of the Evans Easyspace serviced office and industrial portfolio from Regus, and the environmentally-led refurbishment of a Leeds office building.
“The fund’s deals to date – many of which have been originated off-market and brought to us by our strong network of development partners and entrepreneurs – demonstrate our broad range of property investment and management skills, from leasing strategies to full scale redevelopment,” added Ringer.
“It has already made an extremely strong start, and we remain very excited by the opportunities in our pipeline. We look forward to rewarding our investors’ support by delivering strong financial returns as well as demonstrable social and environmental impact in the coming years.”
During the last 12 months Bridges’ other property funds — the Sustainable Property Fund and the CarePlaces Fund — have sold off eight assets, generating profits on each asset of between 20 and 60 per cent.
Its three key earners were a refurbished office block at 158-170 Edmund Street, Birmingham, sold to F&C UK Property Fund for £11.5m; Elmbridge Court Business Park in Gloucestershire, with Bridges upgrading all 25 buildings before selling it on to Archimedes, and a March deal in which Bridges sold two care homes in Stoke Mandeville and Diss to Octopus Healthcare for a combined £20.5m.
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