Property news. - Legal & General Investment Management

WINTER 2013
LEGAL & GENERAL PROPERTY NEWSLETTER
Property Unit Trust passes
£1bn mark.
Over £180m invested so far this year, as Fund continues to snap up
UK property investment opportunities.
LGP’s UK Property Unit Trust (“PUT”), one of the
fastest growing funds in its sector, has reached over
£1bn as it continues to outperform its peer group and
deliver strong returns.
With net inflows of over £250m since the beginning
of the year, the PUT, which was launched in 2006,
has grown from £100m to over £1bn since inception.
Equating to 35% growth per year on average, it is
one of the very few property funds in the sector that
continues to see steady inflow of capital from both
Retail and Institutional investors. Delivering strong
returns, the Fund has outperformed the Lipper
Property IMA Sector peers over one, three, and five
years, with 2.1% per annum outperformance over the
five years to October 2013.
Investing in a range of retail, office and industrial
market opportunities across the UK, that provide
the potential for long-term capital growth, the
Fund also invests in alternative sectors such as car
showrooms and hotels, whilst retaining liquidity
by utilising further investment capabilities such as
REITs and derivative trades. So far this year the
PUT has secured 23 acquisitions, totalling £183m,
and is in discussions on a number of other potential
purchases.
Benchmarked against the Lipper Property IMA
and IPD Balanced Monthly Index Funds, the Fund’s
investment objective is to achieve income and
capital growth through diversified investment in
UK commercial property, with an emphasis on
property selection and active management within a
research-driven risk/return framework for portfolio
construction. In order to achieve this, the Fund is
focussing on three main areas: defensive assets
that offer very long leases and indexation or fixed
growth provisions; high quality development
funding opportunities that may be purchased at a
discount and benefit from stamp duty savings; and
high yielding medium term income streams in core
locations which offer added value potential through
lease engineering.
Matt Jarvis, Fund Manager of the PUT, said:
“It is a significant milestone for
us to achieve and we are incredibly
pleased with the way the Fund has
grown and performed since we
launched in 2006. With the property
market now attracting increased
interest from retail investors we
expect the growth of the Fund to
continue and for our investment
appetite to be sustained into 2014.”
Recent acquisition for the PUT: Fife Leisure Park, Dunfermline