Property specialist Brandeaux has suspended its entire fund range, including its embattled £1bn Student Accommodation fund, as the company attempts to sell up to 80% of some vehicles' portfolios.
In a stock exchange announcement made just days after Investment Week revealed investors had been trapped in the group's Student Accomodation fund for months, Brandeaux said it is suspending its entire eight-strong fund range.
Listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, the range includes the Brandeaux Student Accommodation fund which has both a sterling share class and a multi-currency share class.
The fund drew investors in by producing annualised returns of around 10% for several years, though it has suspended redemptions twice before.
In a statement issued to investors, Brandeaux described the "uncertainty" hanging over its Brandeaux Student Accommodation fund because of an 'overhang' of property already on the market.
The group said: "The directors of the Student funds are in discussions on various property transactions to create liquidity for shareholders and their underlying investors, the outcome of which cannot be predicted with certainty."
Elsewhere, the group's £372m Brandeaux Ground Rents fund is in similar difficulty, with the directors looking for buyers for 80% of the portfolio following "continuing demand for liquidity" from investors.
The company's Dual Asset fund, which invests in both the student accommodation and ground rents vehicles, has also been suspended.
"The Dual Asset funds invest exclusively in the Student funds and Ground Rent funds, so rely on liquidity created by those funds to create liquidity for their own shareholders and their underlying investors," the group said.
"Therefore the Dual Asset funds are dependent on the outcome of the property disposals of the Ground Rent funds and subject to the uncertainties within the student accommodation market."
