Morley Fund Management ('Morley') has set up a £200 million urban regeneration fund, known as the Igloo Regeneration Partnership. Chris Brown, a leading voice in urban regeneration and current Director of amec Developments, will be joining the Fund as Development Manager from amec in April this year.
Morley Fund Management ('Morley') has set up a Ł200 million urban regeneration fund, known as the Igloo Regeneration Partnership. Chris Brown, a leading voice in urban regeneration and current Director of amec Developments, will be joining the Fund as Development Manager from amec in April this year.
Igloo will fund urban regeneration developments in UK towns and cities, and retain its investment in these projects over the long term to ensure they are successful.
Phil Clark, the Fund Manager at Morley responsible for the new fund, said:
'We will be investing in partnership with local authorities to achieve regeneration in the difficult mixed use (residential and commercial) neighbourhoods around town and city centres which institutional investors often ignore. '
Ian Womack, Head of Property at Morley, said:
'This fund brings together the expertise we have been building through other funds which we have established in the private residential, social housing, hotel, healthcare and PFI sectors. Regeneration projects also have strong Socially Responsible Investment characteristics, an area which is key to Morley.'
Chris Brown, Development Manager elect for the Igloo Regeneration fund, said:
'The key to funding regeneration is to combine innovative development solutions with a long term investment approach. The Fund takes regeneration into an exciting new phase.'
Chris Brown is one of the leading players in the current thinking on regeneration. He is a member of the Urban Task Force Working Group and Chair of the RICS Regeneration Panel. Chris has been involved with regeneration for most of his career, working on projects such as Albert Dock, Liverpool and Newcastle Quayside, as well as major PFI projects like the purchase of the MoD married quarters estate by Annington Homes and the construction of 1.4 million square feet of offices for the Inland Revenue in the North East.
The new fund has been welcomed by the Government and industry:
Regeneration Minister, Hilary Armstrong MP, said:
"We are keen to encourage long-term, private sector investment in our towns and cities. I therefore welcome this initiative by Morley Fund Management as a contribution to achieving urban regeneration."
Ken Dytor, Chief Executive of Urban Catalyst, a specialist Urban regeneration developer, said:
'It has always been difficult to attract long term institutional equity into urban regeneration. This pioneering move by Morley deserves to succeed.'
The initial investment for the Igloo Regeneration Fund has been sourced from internal clients within Morley. It is anticipated that new investors will be sought towards the end of the year.
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For further information please contact
Morley Fund Management
Phil Clark (Igloo Regeneration fund manager)
020 7809 6873
Penrose Financial
Gay Collins/Caroline Deutsch
020 7786 4888
Notes to Editors
Much of the urban white paper is based on the report of the Urban Task Force led by Lord Rogers 'Towards an Urban Renaissance' which seeks to encourage investment back into town and city centres and to prevent greenfield urban sprawl. This approach has all party political support.
A particular focus of the Urban Task Force is the encouragement of private investment through fiscal incentives, some of which were announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the pre budget statement and some of which are contained in the local government finance green paper.
The Fund will be targeting areas such as Thames Gateway, Liverpool and East Manchester.
CGU plc and Norwich Union plc merged on 30 May 2000 to create CGNU plc - the world's 6th largest insurer, the UK's largest insurance group and one of the top-five life insurers in Europe with substantial positions in other markets around the world.
CGNU's principal business activities are long-term savings, asset management and general insurance with worldwide premium income and retail investment sales of Ł26 billion and assets under management of more than Ł200 billion.
The institutional fund management business of CGNU in the UK will operate under the Morley brand whilst retail investment businesses will operate under the Norwich Union brand.
Morley Fund Management is a business name of Morley Fund Management Limited (incorporated in England with Registered No. 1151805 and Registered Office 1 Poultry London EC2R 8EJ) and Norwich Union Investment Management Limited (incorporated in England with Registered No. 2152949 and Registered Office 8 Surrey Street Norwich NR1 3NG) both regulated by IMRO and members of the CGNU Group.