By: Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News: Simon Packard: 18 April 2012
Queensgate Investments LLP, set up by Jason Kow and family asset manager LJ Group, raised a distressed European real estate fund capable of making as much as 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) of acquisitions.
Wealthy families pledged 100 million pounds to Luxembourg-registered Queensgate Investment Fund I and may add another 400 million pounds, the company said today in an e-mailed statement. The fund will finance at least half of each acquisition with debt.
Targets will include hotels, properties that generate long-term rental income and other assets across Europe, it said. Kow previously headed special situations investing at London & Regional Properties, the investment company of billionaire brothers Ian and Richard Livingstone. LJ Group oversees 4 billion pounds of assets for about 200 affluent.
“There is as much as 500 billion euros ($654 billion) of property debt in Europe expiring over the next three years and regulatory changes such as Basel III create unique buying opportunities for investors with ready equity who are able to act rapidly,” Kow said in the statement.