LandSecs completes first closing for £1bn Trillium fund

LandSecs has raised over £942m in debt and equity for its Trillium PPP Investment Partners fund, highlighting the appetite amongst investors in a time of uncertainty in the property market for the stable income and long term contracts provided by PFI and PPP companies.

The UK’s biggest property company set up the Trillium Partners joint venture to enable third party investors to gain exposure to Land Securities Trillium’s PPP contract.

In its results in November, Land Secs announced that it had agreed a £568m debt package for the fund. When the fund reaches its final close in March 2008 it will have £1.1bn, to spend, and will begin buying projects from Land Securities Trillium, starting with the Secondary Market Infrastructure Fund assets.

This will free up capital on the company balance sheet to allow it to compete for new contracts. Trillium Partners aims to grow over the next five years to an invested value of nearly £2bn through purchases of mature operational PPP assets.

Investors in the fund include Halifax Bank of Scotland through Uberior Infrastructure Investments, Victorian Funds Management Corporation of Australia and funds from Bank of Ireland.

Land Securities chief executive Francis Salway said: ‘The purchase of the Secondary Market Infrastructure Fund in February 2007 was the company’s largest ever acquisition and was made with the intention of establishing a joint venture to bring in third party investors alongside our own long-term investment. Reaching a successful first close in the prevailing credit market conditions is a real achievement and evidence of the strength of the PPP business we have built and the reputation of the Trillium management team.’