Aviva establishes real assets origination partnership
Aviva today said it has established a new in-house capital unit, Aviva Capital Partners (ACP), to originate suitable real assets using Aviva Group capital, and has signed a partnership with real estate developer Stories.
Aviva reported in its 2022 annual report that Aviva Capital Partners will use the group’s financial strength to create projects while originating assets directly onto its balance sheet.
The partnership with Stories focuses on real estate projects that aim to make a positive difference to the quality of life in communities across the UK, according to Aviva.
The creation of Aviva Capital Partners follows earlier changes at Aviva Investors, which integrated its direct real estate, infrastructure and private debt businesses to form Aviva Investors Real Assets (AIRA), with £37bn of assets under management.
Aviva Investors said AIRA would have full control over fund management, asset management, origination and distribution in its chosen markets.
The business is led by chief investment officer Mark Versey, who oversees about 300 staff across five cities.
As part of the AIRA reorganisation, Aviva Investors entered agreements to sell its Real Estate Multi-Manager business and its stake in Encore+, a pan-European commercial property fund, to LaSalle Investment Management.
To support the enlarged real assets platform, HSBC and Mount Street Group entered a ten-year strategic agreement with Aviva Investors for asset servicing arrangements for its real assets business, totalling £50bn of assets under management.
Under that mandate, HSBC and Mount Street assume all fund administration and debt servicing functions for Aviva Investors’ real assets strategies, including real estate, infrastructure and structured debt.
Aviva later announced a new scalable real assets model in partnership with HSBC, with loan servicing outsourced to Mount Street, alongside wider cost reduction initiatives and the transition of back-office operations to Bank of New York Mellon.
Tony McDonnell is global head of alternative investments, markets & securities services at HSBC, which is working with Aviva Investors on the real assets servicing model.
Melanie Collett is managing director, asset management, real assets at Aviva Investors, a role that sits within the real assets platform now supported by the HSBC and Mount Street servicing arrangements.
Aviva said Aviva Capital Partners will continue to build partnerships, including with Stories, as it develops its origination pipeline.
