Managers

Candy fund abandoned

The Candy brothers’ prime central London residential property fund that only launched in November, seeking £50m of equity, has been ditched during the pre-marketing phase

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The London-based Candy brothers have dropped plans to raise a £100 million (€113 million; $161 million) for their central London property fund.

A sharp rise in values of residential property in London was responsible for the decision, reported the Financial Times. It means they can no longer buy at prices yielding “opportunistic” returns.

Nick and Christian Candy, who are famed for designing high-end residential properties, said in November that they had plans to raise £50 million of equity and to secure debt giving the Candy & Candy Growth Fund total spending power of £100 million.

Smith & Williamson, the London-based investment advisory practice, confirmed to the Financial Times it had ceased pre-marketing.

Martin Sherwood, head of tax-efficient solutions at Smith & Williamson, said: “The . . . recovery of the central London residential property market has had a major impact on the price and availability of stock. This has caused the Candys and ourselves to rethink our strategy. While this recovery is excellent news for residential developers it has changed the financial dynamics of a recovery fund.”