Just a little titbit that popped up on the Stock Exchange this afternoon. BlackRock, through its UK Absolute Alpha Fund, owns 9% of property's newest listed company, LxB Retail.
The giant US investment manager also bought into the IPO of Nick Leslau and Mike Brown's Max Property Group, to the tune of 12%.
Compared to its huge size, BlackRock has never been that into UK property, with only a £1.3bn open-ended fund to its name. But it obviously feels that backing good management teams in the listed sector is a winner.
On a related matter, the market obviously backs the Leslau/Brown axis over LxB's Tim Walton. On listing last week, LxB jumped to 104p, a premium of 4% to the cash it held, before falling back to par this week. Max, on the other hand, immediately jumped to a 30% premium, and is still trading at 120p, a 20% premium.
In five year's time, when both companies are trying to sell to one of the big REITs or fund managers, we'll see who investors should have backed.
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