Franklin Templeton’s Social Infrastructure Fund has acquired six new assets in the education and healthcare sectors across Europe.
The investments are in Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the UK, resulting in a long-term leased diversified portfolio of 101,000 square meters of rentable area.
The new assets include a university complex in Aachen, a school in Stockholm, hospitals in Venice and Denmark and healthcare and nursing home facilities in London and Brighton.
The fund as first real estate impact fund offered to investors in Europe, according to the asset manager. It is managed by Franklin Real Asset Advisors has acquired a total of nine assets to date with a value in excess of €200m since its launch a year ago.
The fund has already invested in a courthouse in Madrid, a medical clinic in London, and an elderly care facility in a suburb of Milan.
The fund said it had a pipeline of more than €500m investments across Europe and expected to make transact on additional assets in the second half of this year.
Raymond Jacobs, managing director and portfolio manager of the fund, said: “Investment in social infrastructure offers an opportunity to pursue a dual objective, namely, to generate market financial returns as well as providing a positive social and environmental impact in the wider community.
“While access to social services across Europe is essential for economic growth and prosperity, not enough is being done to build and adequately maintain the requisite facilities. Through investing in social infrastructure, investors can add much-needed private capital to boost and protect the social services being provided to communities.”
The fund is available to investors in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom.
