Land Secs raises more than £942m for public private partnership JV

The UK property company has tapped investors including Victoria Funds Management Corporation of Australia for Trillium PPP Investment Partners which gives investors exposure to public private partnership contracts in the UK.

Land Securities has attracted equity from a trio of investors for its newly created Trillium Partners vehicle.

Halifax Bank of Scotland through wholly owned subsidiary Uberior Infrastructure Investments, Victoria Funds Management Corporation of Australia and funds from Bank of Ireland have each committed equity to the vehicle, which has just held its first close on more than £942 million including debt.

In a statement today, the company says Trillium Partners has raised more than 83 percent of its initial capital requirement of £1.1 billion.

The vehicle is focussed on public private partnership contracts (PPP), which are generally collaborations between public bodies and the private sector to create infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, prisons, and schools.

Land Securities, which is a UK Reit, operates Land Securities Trillium which specialises in outsourcing contracts. The new vehicle Trillium Partners will begin acquiring projects from Land Securities Trillium in early 2008.

Land Securities Trillium owns a 15 percent stake in Trillium Partners and expects to hold onto this ownership over the long term.

Land Securities has been ramping up its exposure to the infrastructure sector recently. In late 2006, it splashed out £925 million including debt on the Secondary Market Infrastructure Fund (SMIF), Europe's largest PFI investor from STAR Capital Partners, Halifax Bank of Scotland and AMP Capital Investors.

When combined with its primary infrastructure business, Investors in the Community, the acquisition gave Land Securities an interest in around 100 PPP projects and was made in order to establish a joint venture to bring in third party investors.

Land Securities chief executive Francis Salway said reaching a successful first close in the prevailing credit market conditions was a “real achievement.”