Ediston Real Estate, the Scottish property investor founded a decade ago by former Standard Life Investments director Danny O'Neill, has raised £95million for a new real estate investment trust (Reit).
The Ediston Property Investment Company listed on the main market at 100p yesterday, with the first shares traded at 102p.
Ediston said: "To raise nearly £100m during a period of market turmoil and at a time when a number of other IPOs failed or were pulled is very positive for the new company."
Mr O'Neill commented: "It is so volatile, with equity markets all over the place, so last week was quite tense. There are a number of Reits that have failed to launch."
He said Ediston's focus was on the retail and office markets, and he was confident that the trust would be fully invested by the end of the first quarter next year.
Ediston has assets under management currently valued at £350m. It cannily disinvested from the sector in 2006-07, and its Scottish projects include the Broadway redevelopment of the former STV studios in Glasgow. This year the Edinburgh-based manager was chosen as investment partner and manager for Strathclyde Pension Fund's Clydebuilt venture and the partnership's first deal will see the doubling in size of the Port Glasgow retail park.
The Reit has a high-powered board led by chairman Ratan Engineer, former global head of Ernst & Young Asset Management, and including William Hill, the recent managing director of Schroders' property business, Robin Archibald, a recent senior director of Winterflood Securities, and Robert Dick, the former finance director of Cala.
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