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Legal & General Property has completed over £110 mln (EUR 120 mln) of acquisitions as part of its major investment drive to take advantage of the market volatility and capture the 'rare opportunities' presenting themselves in the UK market.

The fund management platform that forms part of Legal & General Investment Management carried out the transactions on behalf of clients across a number of its funds.

The investment drive has been led by the company's new head of tansactions, Gordon Aitchison, who joined LGP from Citygrove in July this year.

So far it has completed the purchase of over nine assets within the office, retail and industrial sectors.

The largest transaction was the acquisition of a freehold Southampton office building let to Skandia Life at a rent of over £2 mln per annum. The investment volume of £21.3 mln represented a net initial yield of 9.1%.

L&G also acquired a Tesco superstore in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire for £13.2 mln, reflecting a net initial yield of 6.75%, and a 7,000-m² office building at Templepoint, Bristol let entirely to Orange, with eight years unexpired for £16.1 mln. This reflected a yield of 8.9%.

L&G said it had accumulated its equity from undertaking selective asset disposals early in the market cycle, enabling it not only to protect its position against potential redemptions by holding a liquidity position, but also to keep its open-ended funds free from trading restrictions. Coupled with this it has also recently secured significant inflows across its funds to invest back into the market.

Aitchison commented: 'With substantial firepower of over £600 mln of cash to invest on behalf of our clients, we continue to actively source a wide variety of interesting prospects. We are using a range of imaginative different approaches to sourcing deals, and the power and reach of Legal & General is really helping deals range from simple acquisitions to joint ventures, banking mandates and corporate sale and leasebacks.'