AAM resumes propety fund trading

The Granite City-based company was only one of several fund managers to suspend redemptions from property funds worth £18bn in the wake of the UK’s Brexit vote last month.

The value of Aberdeen’s fund was cut by 17 per cent, leaving it worth about £2.7bn.

Most investors who wanted their money back had now asked for redemptions, a spokesman said.

Aberdeen chief executive, Martin Gilbert, said: “The market may take time to find its level. Investors should be aware that the price may be adjusted on a daily basis to reflect the funds’ requirement to provide liquidity and the need to protect all investors.”

The firm is set to off-load £250 million worth of property in London as a means of meeting redemption requests.

According to reports, the asset manager has already appointed consultants CBRE as brokers for a £150m sale of property at 355 Oxford St, while Strutt & Parker are acting for the firm in a £100m sale of an office block at 10 Hammersmith Grove.

Aberdeen’s return to trading came as the Bank of England revealed that banks had reined in lending to the UK’s under-pressure commercial property sector for the first time in four years in the run-up to Brexit vote.

Fears over a collapse in prices in the wake of a Brexit vote had seen funds dry-up, according to a BoE credit conditions survey which revealed the availability of finance to the sector dropped sharply in the second quarter of 2016, having not fallen since the same three months in 2012, as lenders became spooked over price drops.

The report also showed that banks expect to clamp down further on lending to the sector.

More than £18 billion in commercial property funds were frozen last week after a rush by investors to pull out their cash following the vote to leave the EU.