Merseyside Pension Fund invests in UK logistics

Urban Industrial Income will invest in industrial and urban logistics assets across the UK, enabling it to purchase £30-40m of assets

Merseyside Pension Fund is investing in UK industrial and urban logistics assets via Barwood Capital and Caisson Investment Management’s newly created fund.

Urban Industrial Income Limited Partnership (UII), the fund created by the Barwood and Caisson joint venture BCCIM, has secured an undisclosed amount from the UK local government pension fund at its first close.

The manager said it is in talks with a number of investors for further closes in 2021 to increase the size of the vehicle.

UII, a seven-year vehicle will invest in multi-let industrial and urban logistics assets across regional locations in the UK, enabling it to purchase £30-40m (€35-€47m) of assets.

The fund has already invested £12.7m to buy its first asset, Rushock Trading Estate in Droitwich for £12.7m, the joint venture said, adding that it is pursuing further opportunities. Rushock Trading Estate was acquired from Hovi, represented by Chris Bampton at BSB.

Danielle Sheppard, a senior investment director at Barwood Capital, said: BCCIM is an exciting new joint venture between two well-known UK property companies with a similar ethos and culture.

It brings together the investment management experience and knowledge of Barwood whilst incorporating the specialist asset management expertise of Caisson. We have already worked well together in our Barwood 2017 Fund and look forward to further success in UII, Sheppard said.

James Ward, asset management director at Caisson Investment Management, said: This sector has proved its resilience through the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic with strong rent collection and continued occupier and rental growth.

Ward said the joint venture will enable Caisson to take advantage of the smaller end of the market where larger pools of capital have difficulty investing and managing in the absence of an expert in the sector.