December 23, 2019
From ground-breaking transactions investing nearly £200m of equity, to new fund launches, a flurry of awards and the 80% sale of the firm, 2019 has certainly been a busy year at Palmer Capital.
To add to all this activity, we recently moved into in Fiera Capital Europe’s new headquarters, in the West End and rebranded to Fiera Real Estate.
Our key strategies (Core and Value-Add) have performed well this year and as Q4 draws to a close, we reflect on some of the 2019 highlights in this blog.
Value-add Mandates
Our value-add funds have been extremely busy this year with the commitment of £96m of capital into new transactions, planning consents achieved for over 280,000 sq. ft of commercial space and 430 residential units, and the sale of over £125m of assets where the business plan has been completed. Among this was the sale of Colworth Science Park, a leading 320,000 sq ft, campus which is home to one of Unilever’s six global R&D facilities, sold for over £60m.
In the latest of our programmatic ventures with CBRE GIP, we launched Fiera Real Estate Opportunity Fund V, targeting value-add and opportunistic real estate transactions in the UK. Building on the success of the previous four funds in the series, which have invested over £600 million of equity, FREOF V will seek to invest £250m of equity in the next two years and achieve a 12-15% IRR net to investors. The first close of FREOF V was in November 2019, its first 3 assets are secured.
Core Mandates
On the core side of our business we have invested c. £100m in 11 individual deals for two separate mandates and our core fund.
We have disposed £20m of assets in the year.
From 2020, PCIF will be opened-up to third party investors to facilitate growth in the long income space and will rebrand to become ‘Fiera Real Estate Long Income Fund (UK)’.
Awards
Alongside our operating partners we have collectively won four awards this year, including Co-Star Midlands Deal of the Year with Manse Opus Prospero, Ansty; Co-Star South East Deal of the Year with Cubex’s Aurora; IAS Awards – Deal of the Year (over 250,000 sq ft) with Manse Opus’s Prospero Ansty and IAS Awards – Deal of the Year (under 75,000 sq ft) with Wrenbridge’s Quadron, Dartford. Alongside our four successes, we were also nominated for 13 other awards.
Into the New Year
Going into the New Year, as the UK division of Fiera Real Estate we are part of a world leading global real estate investment management firm and a growing part of our ultimate parent, Fiera Capital Corporation, the largest independent asset management firm in Canada.
After a busy and memorable 2019, we look forward to working together in what will be exciting year ahead.