The fund’s first close has raised £40 mln of equity from JR Capital’s Middle East-based private and institutional client base, giving Chancerygate an initial £80 mln to deploy.

Both Chancerygate and JR Capital have co-invested into the new fund.

At the same time, it has been announced that the fund has made its first investment with the acquisition of Port Road Business Park in Carlisle.

The park comprises 20 units totalling 108,000 ft2 (10,033 m2) with occupiers including Travis Perkins, Wolseley, Menzies Distribution, NHS and Sky. The asset was acquired for £7.4 mln and has a net initial yield of 8.1%.

The partners’ first fund, which totalled £100 mln, secured 18 assets over a two-year period, ranging from Dundee to Exeter and comprising 150 units totalling more than one million ft2.

The latest fund has a five-year life and will target industrial, warehousing and urban logistics investments across the UK in lot sizes of £5 mln to £15 mln.

JR Capital CEO, John Collier-Wright, said: 'We are pleased to have closed our second fund with Chancerygate. We remain bullish on the small-box multi-let sector due to the strength of the occupier market and robust fundamentals.

'We have witnessed first-hand on our previous fund the significant supply demand in-balance, which has allowed us to maintain close to 100% occupancy and increase rents by an average of over 25%.

'The recent volatility in the investment markets has created good buying opportunities for investors like us that are well-capitalised and can transact quickly in cash. We try to be active and buy whilst others are selling or sitting on the side lines.'

The fund’s strategy is to acquire a geographically diverse portfolio of assets across the UK, which both generate a secure income stream from a varied tenant base and offer opportunities to add value through active asset management.

Chancerygate managing director, Richard Bains, added: 'The success of the first fund underpinned a period of significant growth for our asset management team. We now manage around £385m of assets across more than five million ft2 of commercial space in over 480 units.

'This latest fund provides us with even more firepower that the first. It shows there is ongoing demand from a myriad of entities and jurisdictions for UK logistics property of all types.

'Investors see past short-term challenges and can perceive longer term prospects with an asset class they regard as particularly resilient.'