Royal London Asset Management has bought Cambridge Research Park from Rockspring Property Investment Managers for circa £78m, on behalf of The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society.
Rockspring completed the sale, an off-market disposal, on behalf of its UK Value 2 fund. Bidwells acted for Rockspring and asset manager XLB Property, while Royal London was represented by Savills.
Rockspring originally acquired the site, which spans 112 acres, in partnership with Property for £21m in 2014.
The partnership kicked off a significant construction and asset management programme across the site, including the development of an additional 80,000 sq ft of office, laboratory and mid-tech space across three buildings.
It also developed 76,000 sq ft of industrial space across a nine-unit scheme called Enterprise 5000, which completed in May. Two of the industrial units are currently under offer.
Rockspring said the asset management has generated a circa 45% uplift in the park’s rental tone.
The sale to Royal London also includes 13.5 acres of consented development land.
Kim Sardar, director at Rockspring, said: “Having received an approach from Royal London, with the majority of the construction completed and a tangible improvement in the Park’s income profile having been achieved, we believe that now is the right time to crystallise the value we have created on behalf of our investors, and to hand over to an institutional buyer to take it forward over the longer term.”
The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Limited is managed by Royal London Asset Management and has a net asset value of around £3.50bn.
Royal London Asset Management currently has more than £100bn under management across asset classes, of which around £6.5bn is invested in UK property.
UK Value 2 is the second fund in Rockspring’s UK-only closed-ended real estate strategy with a core plus risk profile.
The fund, which held a final close in February 2015, secured a total of £342m of equity from 11 investors and will have a duration of circa seven years.
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