£850M Property Fund To Liquidate. Here’s What’s On The Block

An open-ended property fund will liquidate and sell all of its assets so it can repay investors who want their money back.

The £849M Lothbury Property Trust, managed by Lothbury Investment Management, said Monday that because defined benefit pension schemes now want to allocate less money to property, it would redeem its investments in the fund. It plans to sell assets and return money to investors in an “orderly and efficient” manner. 

Lothbury joins investment managers like Janus Henderson and Aviva Investors in closing funds because of high levels of redemptions.

The fund had been closed to new redemptions since August last year. It received £170M of redemption requests in the first quarter of 2023, then £500M more in the second quarter. Lothbury embarked on an effort to sell assets to repay those redemptions and reopen the fund, selling its largest assets, including the £146M Tera 40 industrial estate near London. 

Some fund investors proposed that it should merge with another fund, putting forward a combination with UBS’ open-ended Triton fund. But the deal did not meet the 75% shareholder vote threshold needed to make it happen. 

Here are the five biggest assets in the fund, which will now need to be sold.

Clarendon Shopping Centre, Oxford

The Clarendon is a 227K SF shopping centre in Oxford where Lothbury has been given planning permission for a redevelopment that will include lab space, offices, student accommodation, shops and restaurants. Lothbury puts a value of £50M on the scheme.

Sheraton Park, Durham

Completed in 2017 and 2018 across two phases, Sheraton Park is a student accommodation scheme comprising 418 units. It is fully leased to Durham University on a 25-year lease with annual retail price index rental uplifts. 

Meteor Park, Birmingham

Despite selling Tera 40, a slew of the Lothbury fund’s largest assets are in the industrial sector. The scheme totals more than 250K SF across four buildings and is valued at £37M-plus. 

Primary Park, Aylesford

Primary Park in Aylesford, Kent, also an industrial asset, totals 231K SF. Lothbury has owned it for 20 years. Tenants include Tesco, Kent Police Authority and Chubb Fire, and it is valued at more than £36M. 

Premier Park, Manchester

The 20-unit, 187K SF Premier Park in Manchester is part of a wider industrial estate project called Trafford Park. The scheme is 100% occupied and valued at £36M.