Opus Land’s funding partner, Palmer Capital rebrands to Fiera Real Estate

Opus Land a leading UK property development and investment company with offices in the West Midlands and London, is pleased to announce that Fiera Real Estate’s UK division, a minority shareholder in the business and one of its funding partners is rebranding. Founded in 1999, Opus Land has an established track record in delivering added-value solutions for real estate.

Palmer Capital Partners Limited (“Palmer Capital”), the UK division of Fiera Real Estate Investments Limited (“Fiera Real Estate”), which manages over C$6 billion of commercial real estate through its investment funds and accounts, has rebranded to Fiera Real Estate UK Limited (“Fiera Real Estate’s UK division”).

In April 2019, Fiera Real Estate, part of Fiera Capital Corporation (TSX: FSZ) (“Fiera Capital”), the third largest independent asset management firm in Canada, acquired an 80% interest in Palmer Capital. This acquisition marked the start of an evolution for Fiera Real Estate’s UK division to become part of a coordinated and growing global real estate platform.

The acquisition marked Fiera Capital’s first acquisition of a real estate investment management business outside of Canada.
Fiera Real Estate’s UK division will be located in Fiera Capital’s new offices in the West End of London. It will remain a UK focused real estate investment management company, as well as being a minority shareholder in ten regional property companies across the UK. It remains independently managed and part owned by the management.

“Rebranding to Fiera Real Estate reflects the creation of a new global real estate offering. However, whilst we have a new name, our people, entrepreneurial culture and relentless focus on creating sustainable value for stakeholders remains the same” said Alex Price, Head of Fiera Real Estate’s UK division.

“We are very excited to move into this next phase of our evolution in the UK. Palmer Capital has been a great addition to Fiera Real Estate, as we pursue our mission to build a best in class global real estate investment management platform and to better serve our growing international client base” said Peter Cuthbert, Global Head of Fiera Real Estate.

Victoria Turnbull, Joint Managing Director at Opus Land said “We are thrilled about the additional firepower that Fiera Real Estate will bring to Opus Land’s armoury. Opus has gone from strength to strength in recent years becoming one of the UK’s preeminent Property Developers. The combination between our expertise, access to transactions and Fiera Real Estate’s funding capability will see us become an even stronger contender in the market over the coming years. We are excited about what the future will hold for us.”

New fund launches and rebrands
Fiera Real Estate’s UK division launched the Fiera Real Estate Opportunity Fund V (UK) (“FREOF V”) in November 2019, its first fund since the acquisition. It is the fifth fund in its programmatic venture series with CBRE Global Investment Partners which has invested a total of £600 million, and targets value add and opportunistic real estate transactions in the UK.

As of January 2020, Fiera Real Estate’s UK division has also renamed its core income fund Fiera Real Estate Long Lease Fund (UK) (“FRELLF”), formerly known as the Palmer Capital Income Fund.

These vehicles benefit from themes that take advantage of Fiera Real Estate’s pan UK vertically integrated business model combining investment management with widespread UK geographic coverage.