Aviva Investors has finished selling off the assets of its suspended £159m Asia Pacific Property fund, two years after gating the vehicle.
The open-ended fund closed to investors on August 21 2015 after two large investors, accounting for three-quarters of assets, gave notice of withdrawal. The firm said at the time it expected to take two years to return capital to unitholders.
Aviva has now sold all assets in the fund, and returned an amount equivalent to 17 per cent more than the portfolio’s closing value.
However, the asset manager said investors should not expect final payments until the second half of 2018.
“It will still take some time for us to be able to return all proceeds of the sales to investors due to the complex structure of the fund,” the firm said.
The development comes after a week in which the FCA completed its review of how open-ended UK property vehicles treated investors during last July’s separate series of suspensions.
The regulator told property fund managers they needed to improve practices, criticising firms for “inadequate” planning.
The watchdog is to incorporate the findings into a separate feedback statement on illiquid assets and open-ended funds later this year.
