Spire Ventures, the investment management vehicle of entrepreneur Faisal Butt, has joined with entrepreneur James Caan to back the newly launched real estate investment company QuoinStone Investment Management.
QuoinStone IM, which was founded in February 2018, is targeting value-add assets. The company aims to build a diverse real estate portfolio in London and regional locations aiming for an initial £1 billion AUM.
QuoinStone IM will initially look to invest in multi-let assets valued between £10million to £50million-plus and will predominantly focus on the office sector both in London and regional markets where office supply has now been starved due to Permitted Development Rights conversions to residential.
The company is led by founders Tim Struth and Steve Howling. Struth advised on more than £12 billion of development and regeneration projects while at Savills before launching his own private property company SB2 Property Ventures, which invested and managed £275 million of office, retail, hotel and residential properties.
Howling had a background at Savills and CBRE Investors, before joining Fidelity and successfully expanding its UK fund. He has managed more than £1 billion of real estate funds over the last 10 years for institutions and corporate investors.
Struth and Howling’s expertise will be combined with the financial backing and strategic knowledge of entrepreneurs Faisal Butt and James Caan, enabling the company to deliver investment solutions across many different real-estate asset classes within a value-add remit.
QuoinStone IM has already secured its first mandate to manage £100m+ asset Telephone House in Shoreditch and is looking to attract further investment from both domestic and overseas Asian, Middle Eastern and Emerging Market buyers looking to purchase property in the UK.
Faisal Butt, founder Spire Ventures, said: “On behalf of Spire Ventures, I am delighted to lead the investment in QuoinStone IM as a new value-add real estate investment manager in the UK. Given our broader experience and success with 90 North and a range of other real estate businesses, we are well-positioned to help Tim and Steve achieve their ambition to build a world-class business and invest £1 billion of capital in the next few years.”
James Caan, entrepreneur, said: “Ultimately, I am a backer of people and in Tim and Steve we have found two professional operators who understand the nuts and bolts of creating value in property transactions. Their institutional background and entrepreneurial approach is just the right combination for investors like me as well as domestic and overseas family offices and institutions.”
QuoinStone IM believes that with many investors switching to lower risk, core and long income strategies due to doubts over Brexit, there is less competition for property stock in the value-add arena, providing better value for buyers.
Consolidation among larger fund managers has also led to less choice of manager for investors looking for alternative property investment solutions, providing a good opening for a new entrant to the market.
To demonstrate alignment of interests with its capital partners Quoinstone IM will co-invest in every investment proposition it secures.
Steve Howling, co-founder QuoinStone IM, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Spire Ventures and James Caan. Faisal and James share our passion for creating value from real estate and our ambition to provide an exemplary client experience.
We believe that with their support and backing we have the foundations in place and combined expertise that will enable us to build a business capable of competing at a global level.”
Tim Struth, co-founder of QuoinStone IM, said: “We have watched the continued move by institutional investors away from risk and towards long-dated income across sectors. We believe that this, combined with the supply imbalance in some markets, has opened up a buying opportunity for value-add stock and provides the perfect climate to take advantage of our experience of repositioning and improving assets, moving them from value-add to core.
“We continue to see appetite from foreign investors for UK assets and this new partnership will help to give us exposure to expand our capital base and to grow our portfolio to £1 billion under management over the next few years.”
