Morley Fund Management has joined forces with Parkridge to launch a €425m property fund which will develop and invest directly in shopping centres in Poland.
Morley Fund Management has joined forces with Parkridge to launch a €425m property fund which will develop and invest directly in shopping centres in Poland. The Parkridge Central European Retail Fund, is a 50:50 joint venture that focuses on shopping centres located in provincial Polish cities. Morley Fund Management has committed to invest €340m into the fund on behalf of Norwich Union Life.
The fund already controls five sites and will initially seek to build and develop shopping centres on these totalling an area of 1.02 million square feet.
The developments will be in towns of a population of 100,000 or more with gross lettable areas of between 18,000 sqm and 64,000 sqm. They will provide fashion, electrical, supermarket units and multiplex cinemas. Tenants will include a combination of international and Polish brands and pre-lettings already achieved include Media Markt, H & M, Zara, Reserved, Vision Express, Boss, Alma (Supermarket), Multikino, Cinemacity, Promod, Ecco, Adidas & Reebok.
Construction has already started at the first shopping centre in the southern city of Rybnik and will be open for Christmas 2006.
Roger Sporle, fund manager at Morley Fund Management, said: “The Parkridge Central European Retail Fund is the fourth fund focussing on Central Europe that we have launched in the past year and our second major fund with the Parkridge team.
“We believe there will be considerable yield compression and rental growth in the Polish market as the retail sector develops and potentially excellent returns for our clients over the next 5 to 10 years.”
Alan Stainforth, CEO for Parkridge operations in Central Europe, said: “We are very pleased with the launch of this Fund. We believe Poland presents great opportunities for us in terms of development. Attracting and signing up major European retail tenants has shown us the real potential for these markets and we fully anticipate UK multiples to start expanding in the region.”
The fund has been advised by Philip Marsden & Ian Playford of the London office of King Sturge who are retained as advisors to the fund.
The Parkridge Central European Retail Property Fund is an English Limited Partnership and an unregulated collective investment scheme in the UK.
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For further information please contact:
Fiona Baker, Head of Corporate Communications
Morley Fund Management
020 7809 8617
fiona.baker@morleyfm.com
Or
Visit Parkridge http://www.parkridge-ce.com/en/
Notes to editors:
Morley Fund Management
Morley builds European Property Business
- August 2004 – Morley announces intention to invest Ł1 billion in Continental European property on behalf of major life fund client. Appoints Ben Stirling as European Fund Manager.
- September 2004 – Morley and Parkridge launch the €200m Parkridge European Distribution Fund to develop and own distribution warehouse parks in Central Europe.
- September 2004 – Morley appoints Julian Taylor as Fund Manager from Heitman International.
- November 2004 – Morley invests €100m in to the Pillar European Retail Park Fund and takes up a strategic management role for this Fund.
- January 2005 – Morley launches the Aviva Central European Property Fund, aimed at institutional investors looking for exposure to the Central European Property market.
- May 2005 – Morley appointed as fund manager to the newly launched Tri Investments European Residential Property Fund.
- July 2005 – Morley appoints Gilles Chow and Gil Bar as Fund Managers.
- August 2005 - Morley launches Central European Industrial Fund
About Morley Fund Management
Morley Fund Management (‘Morley’) is a London based, asset management business with over Ł134 billion (€198 bn)** under management. The property team manages in excess of Ł17 billion (€24bn) of UK and European property assets, making Morley one of the largest property fund manager in Europe. Winners of the high profile Property Week Fund Manager of the Year Award 2004 and the UK Pensions Awards 2005 Property Fund Manager of the Year, the team consists of over 60 investment professionals and manages a range of funds on behalf of institutional, pension and retail clients. Morley has been at the forefront of innovation in property fund management and has launched a range of specialist sector based funds, including: Igloo Regeneration Fund, Quercus Healthcare Property, The Junction and The Mall.
Visit www.morleyproperty.com
**Not including mortgage assets, as at 30/06/05
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Morley Fund Management is a business name of Morley Fund Management Limited, registered in England No. 1151805. Registered Office: No. 1 Poultry, London EC2R 8EJ. Authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Services Authority and a member of the Investment Management Association.
Morley Fund Management is also a business name of Morley Fund Management International Limited. Both are Aviva companies.
Contact us at Morley Fund Management, No. 1 Poultry, London EC2R 8EJ.