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Aberdeen extends UK property fund suspension to July 11

Both the Threadneedle UK Property Authorised Investment Fund (Threadneedle PAIF) and the Threadneedle UK Property Authorised Trust suspended at 12pm on Wednesday.

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BoE’s statement that some risks were “crystallising” contributed to sentiment, analysts said.

Elsewhere, property investment fund major M&G Investments joined Aviva and Standard Life in suspending trading after uncertainty caused by the referendum vote led to investors rushing to withdraw funds.

M&G Investments, Aviva Investors and Standard Life Investments halted withdrawals because they don’t have enough cash to immediately repay investors.

Henderson Global Investors is the latest firm to suspend trading in its United Kingdom property fund.

The Threadneedle PAIF and its Feeder Fund invest in physical United Kingdom commercial property such as warehouses, shopping centres, high street shops and offices around the UK. It said Wednesday that it was suspending trading in its property fund for 24 hours starting noon Wednesday, after which time an investor who wanted to withdraw would need to accept a 17% reduction.

“Given the uncertainty regarding property valuations in the United Kingdom, we have acted to restrict transactions in our United Kingdom property funds to ensure fairness to both exiting and continuing policyholders”, Canada Life said Wednesday in an emailed statement.

More than half of the £25 billion of funds committed to commercial property by retail investors is now locked down by managers, who are under pressure to sell buildings to raise cash. Reducing the amount paid to departing investors would protect investors who remained in the fund, he said.

Henderson said: “Despite a strong underlying portfolio, the decision was taken due to exceptional liquidity pressures on the funds, as a result of uncertainty following the European Union referendum and the recent suspension of other direct property funds”.

LONDON, July 7 Aberdeen Asset management extended the suspension period for its 3.2 billion pound ($4.17 billion) Aberdeen UK Property Fund to Monday July 11, it said on Thursday.

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) said it was hard to predict the impact of the decision to leave the European Union on commercial property.

Seven U.K. property funds have now suspended dealing or made valuation adjustments on their U.K. property funds.

The suspensions cover at least 14.7 billion pounds of United Kingdom real estate assets, Bloomberg Business reported Wednesday, or more than half the total in major funds.

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Aberdeen explains: ‘This action has been taken due to rapidly changing commercial property market conditions and to continue to provide liquidity in the fund at a price reflecting those conditions’.

Aviva Investors suspended trading in a £1.8 billion real estate investment fund after Standard Life Investments froze its fund on Monday