M&G Says Reopening $5.5 Billion Property Fund After Asset Sales

(Bloomberg) -- M&G Investments said it’s reopening its suspended property fund next month as money managers raise more than 700 million pounds ($856 million) from asset sales.

The 4.5 billion-pound fund was one of seven suspended after the U.K. vote to leave the European Union in June spurred a rush of withdrawals. Some 58 of M&G’s properties have either been sold, exchanged sales contracts or placed under offer.

‘“The flows of redemptions meant we were pretty close to a disorderly market,” M&G’s Chief Executive Officer Anne Richards said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “We thought there was a real risk to our customers’ money if we were forced to sell at fire sale prices.”

The company has discounted prices by about 3.5 percent to generate sales, she said. Once the transactions have been completed, the fund will still be invested in 119 U.K. commercial properties across retail, industrial and office buildings.

The M&G Property Portfolio and its feeder fund will start trading at noon on Nov. 4 and a fair value adjustment applied in July has also been removed. M&G is the investment unit of Prudential Plc and oversees about 247.5 billion pounds in assets.

To contact the reporters on this story: Francine Lacqua in London at flacqua@bloomberg.net, Sarah Jones in London at sjones35@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Neil Callanan at ncallanan@bloomberg.net, Michael Shanahan, Cindy Roberts