Sir Ronald Cohen’s Portland Capital today announced the launch of its global property securities hedge fund with $150m (£75m) of seed capital.

Investors include ‘major family offices and funds of funds, as well as experienced real estate investors’, Portland said in a statement.

The fund, which is open ended, will be able to go either long or short in property shares. ‘Its innovative style of utilising hedging and shorting strategies and using property derivatives is well adapted to current conditions in global property markets which are characterized by volatility and concern over valuations in an environment of rising interest rates,’ said Cohen, the founder of private equity firm Apax Partners.

The fund will be led by George Kountouris, formerly co-head of Deutsche Bank’s real estate private equity group, and Nigel King, formerly head of Salomon Smith Barney’s European real estate finance group.

Portland Capital was set up by Cohen, Lord Jacob Rothschild, Sir Harry Solomon, Professor Arthur Segel and Kountouris.

Topics