Fund manager InfraRed Capital Partners is getting out of the European real estate business.

InfraRed’s majority owner, Canadian insurer Sun Life Financial, wants it to concentrate on its infrastructure business, which accounts for $10B of its $12B of assets under management, PERE reported.

Its $2B real estate business is split between Europe and Asia. The Asian assets will be subsumed into BentallGreenOak, the real estate fund manager in which Sun Life also owns a majority stake. Corporate finance firm Fenchurch Advisory Partners has been drafted in to undertake a strategic review of the European business, which is expected to lead to a sale, PERE said.

InfraRed has a good track record of raising capital. In 2018 it raised £522M for its fourth value-add fund, ahead of its target of £500M.

It has been a big buyer of urban logistics for that fund and also for its Urban Logistics Income Fund. In the first three months of 2021 it bought a 261K SF portfolio for £51M for the Urban Logistics Fund from NW1 Partners and sold a 2.2M SF UK and French portfolio from the value-add fund for £250M to Blackstone.

Previously it was a big investor in the retail sector, and these investments have not been so straightforward.

In February, Bisnow revealed that the St George’s shopping centre in Preston, which it bought for £73M in 2015 for its third value-add fund, had gone into administration.

At the Eastgate shopping centre in Basildon, which it bought for £89M in 2011, it is undertaking a huge redevelopment, with outline plans lodged for a 2,800-unit scheme encompassing private sale flats, build to rent, student accommodation, later living and co-living alongside revamped retail and commercial space.