One More Thing:Having recently paid €81 million to Superquinn to buy its shops in Bray, Finglas, Naas and Walkinstown, Friends First is now seeking to offload the risk to private investors.
The Corinthian Irish Retail Portfolio offers investors the opportunity to get a slice of the action for between €15,000 and €1 million. When various costs are added to the bill, investors are being tapped for €91 million.
The fund manager is seeking to raise €37.5 million in equity and €53.5 million in debt finance.
The term is for five years and investments can be made via a life assurance policy or through a pension fund.
This might not be a bad punt. Superquinn has agreed to upward-only, higher-than-inflation rent reviews. The properties already yield €3.6 million a year between them, giving a 4 per cent yield.
The icing on the cake is the development potential. In Finglas, Friends First and Superquinn have applied to build 153 apartments, a new supermarket, 10 other retail units and 390 basement car parking spaces.
In Walkinstown, Superquinn recently bought a nearby site and is planning to relocate in the area. Friends First hopes to secure permission for an apartment scheme on the 1.3-acre site before selling it on to a developer.
The stores in Bray and Naas are also likely to be redeveloped.
The biggest winner could well be Friends First. The fund manager is charging investors €1.3 million up front for structuring the deal. It is also charging a management fee each year of 0.2 per cent of the property value and an annual administration fee of 1.05 per cent of the net asset value of the fund.
The asset manager has also built in a performance-related profit share for itself.
If investors receive a 10 per cent annual compound return, on top of getting their original investment back, a performance fee of 15 per cent will be charged by Friends First on all excess profits above this threshold.
