Internos takes over British Land fund

Internos, the London-based private equity real estate firm, has landed another asset management contract as it continues to build assets under management. 

The company started by Andrew Thornton and Jos Short in 2008, has been appointed by UK REIT British Land to manage the Pillar Retail Europark Fund. The fund owns ten retail parks in Spain, France, Portugal and Italy with a collective value of €230 million and most of British Land's staff in Spain and France have transferred to the replacement manager. 

The opportunity to take on the fund has arisen because British Land regards it as too small to be considered a core part of its business. British Land inherited the assets when it took over UK retail specialist Pillar Property in 2005. As well as British Land’s financial interests, the closed ended fund – which launched in 2004 - also contains several institutional investors.

Separately, European firm Orion Capital Partners has acquired the remaining 50 percent stake in the Puerto Venecia regional shopping centre and retail park in Zaragoza, Spain, that it jointly held with British Land. The €144.5 million acquisition has been made on behalf of Orion’s European Real Estate Fund III.

The latest replacement management contract and transfer of assets to Internos takes its funds under management €4.1 billion and is the eighth fund manager replacement mandate since its formation five years ago.

Over the past six months alone, it has acquired Commerz Real’s €1.6 billion real estate Spezialfonds business; been appointed investment manager of Local Shopping REIT plc; and held the second close of its Hotel Real Estate Fund with €210 million of equity. It has also won two further mandates: one, to manage a French portfolio for a Swedish pension fund and the other, from the Saxony Doctors Pension Fund in Germany (Sächsische Aerzteversorgung ‘SAEV’), to invest up to €200 million in value-add European hotel real estate.

Jos Short, executive chairman said: “This appointment by British Land is a great endorsement of our pan-European investment management platform. We look forward to maximising returns for investors at this point in the European real estate cycle.”

Source: PERE