M7 cancels IPO of its real estate investment trust which would have been the largest this year
M7 Real Estate, a firm which invests in commercial property around Europe, has today cancelled the planned float of its new investment trust on the London Stock Exchange.
The M7 Multi-Let Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit), which was set to invest in UK commercial property, aimed to raise £300m in a stock market listing which would have made it the largest Reit IPO in 2017.
M7 had already extended the deadline for the share offer, and seemingly could not grab enough investor interest to raise its target amount.
Despite this, M7’s chief executive Richard Croft said: “Throughout the IPO process we received positive feedback and a strong level of investment indications from prospective investors.”
He added that a number of investors had expressed an interest in acquiring the initial portfolio, which included properties held in other funds, privately. M7 has since accepted this funding and further sums to pursue the pipeline of opportunities it had formed.
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The investor interest, “combined with the current market conditions and the volume of recent issuances focusing on UK real estate, led the board to conclude that the initial portfolio and pipeline would be better funded privately over the near to medium term,” said Croft.
M7 said it may “revisit” a potential listing over the next 12 months.
In better news for M7, the firm announced it had closed its largest-ever European investment fund – M7 European Real Estate Investment Partners IV – with more than €400m (£356m) of commitments, making it the firm’s largest to date.
Including leverage, the fund will have a total investment capacity of over €800m.