Hermes Invests in Junction Retail Park Fund

LONDON-Fund manager Hermes, on behalf of the British Telecom pension fund, has injected two properties worth £66.85 million ($105 million) into the Junction Fund, the specialist retail park fund set up by Capital & Regional and Morley Fund Management. The deal increases theJunction Fund’s portfolio to 16 parks with a value of £513 million ($805 million).

The parks are the Reading Retail Park in Reading, Berkshire and the Ocean Retail Park in Portsmouth, Hampshire. The Junction Fund targets parks of over 100,000 sf capable of becoming dominant destinations, and a spokesman said both parks satisfy these investment criteria: currently, the two parks have a total floor area of 288,000 sf of retail and 64,000 sq ft of industrial space.

Hermes has taken units in the fund in return for the properties, meaning that Capital & Regional’s interest in the fund has fallen from 35% to 28%. Eventually, the managers plan to grow the fund to over £1 billion ($1.6 billion) by bringing in more outside investors.

Capital & Regional Chief Executive Martin Barber said: “Our success inattracting such a respected investor provides a larger asset base over which togear our expertise to create value.”